Dozens dead in Iraq military base suicide attack

KARBALA, Iraq, June 1 (UPI) -- At least 42 Iraqi security forces were killed in a suicide attack on an army base in the Anbar province city of Karbala.

Security sources and eyewitnesses said a Humvee military vehicle laden with explosives entered the base and explosives early Monday. They added ammunition stored at the base continued exploding for several hours after the incident.

Although no group claimed responsibility for the attack, the base is in Anbar province in southern Iraq, near the city of Fallujah. In May, the Iraqi government announced a major offensive to recapture Anbar areas under control of the Islamic State (IS).

The incident occurred the day after Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi acknowledged that the 2,300 Humvee vehicles were lost to IS when it claimed the city of Mosul in 2014. It also occurred on the third and most significant day of the Shi'ite religious observance of Arba'een, and the third incident this week in Karbala, a city of about one million people and site of a pilgrimage; 26 people died and 70 were injured in a car bomb blast, and in a separate incident, rocket shells fell on pilgrims, killing 16 and injuring 30.