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Car bomb kills three outside U.S. consulate - UPDATED

Car bomb kills three outside U.S. consulate - <span style="color: red;">UPDATED

17 April 2015 22:30 (UTC +04:00)

Baku-APA. A car bomb killed three people on Friday outside the U.S. consulate in Erbil, a ally of Washington in the war against Islamic State, which claimed the attack.

No U.S. personnel were hurt in the blast, according to the U.S. State Department, which said a "vehicle-borne improvised explosive device" exploded right outside the entrance to the heavily fortified compound.

Kurdistan is an important partner for the U.S.-led coalition in its campaign to "degrade and destroy" the Islamic State group, which overran large parts of Iraq last summer and threatened to reach Erbil.

A Reuters witness heard the blast, which was followed by gunfire and a column of black smoke high above the Ankawa district, a predominantly Christian neighborhood packed with cafes popular with foreigners. "It seems the consulate was the target," Nihad Qoja, the mayor of Erbil's city center, told Reuters.

The head of security for Ankawa said three people were killed and 14 wounded. "They (Islamic State) want to show they are present," Sherzad Farmand said. Islamic State also claimed responsibility for two car bombings in the Baghdad that killed at least 27 people on Friday.

"The fighters of the Islamic State detonated two car bombs in the heart of the Iraqi capital this evening and a third in Erbil," the group said via its news agency. U.S. officials said they found the Islamic State claim of responsibility for the Erbil consulate attack credible. "We have no reason to doubt their claim of responsibility," a U.S. counter terrorism official told Reuters. Such attacks are relatively rare in Kurdistan, which has managed to insulate itself from the worst of the violence afflicting the rest of Iraq. The last major attack in Erbil, also claimed by Islamic State, was in November, when a suicide car bomber blew himself up outside the governor's office, killing five.

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21:00

Baku-APA. A car bomb exploded outside the U.S. Consulate in the northern Iraqi city of Irbil, the capital of the Kurdish autonomy zone, APA reports quoting Associated Press.

There was no immediate word on casualties. A U.S. official said no consulate personnel or guards were killed or injured in Friday's blast. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to talk to the press.

An Associated Press reporter on the scene said the large blast went off just outside the consulate building in Irbil's Ankawa neighborhood, setting nearby cars on fire. Kurdish security forces quickly arrived on the scene.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility.