The officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, said 8 people also sustained injuries on Tuesday, when an explosives-laden car went off near a mosque in Baghdad’s central district of Arasat al-Hindiya, Iraq’s Arabic-language al-Forat news agency reported.

Security forces immediately cordoned off the scene of the explosion, and ambulances carried the injured to nearby hospitals to receive medical treatment.

The UN Assistance Mission for Iraq (UNAMI) says a total of 812 Iraqis were killed and another 1,726 were injured in acts of terrorism, violence and armed conflict last month.

Northern and western parts of Iraq have been in chaos since ISIL started its campaign of terror in early June 2014. The terrorists are in control of the second-largest city of Mosul and they have swept through parts of the country’s Sunni Arab heartland.

Since then, Iraq’s army has been joined by Kurdish forces, Shia volunteers and Sunni tribesmen in operations to drive the ISIL terrorists out of the areas they have seized.