At least 35 people have been killed and more than 60 injured in a suicide attack targeting Shia in Iraq’s capital Baghdad, officials say.

The Islamic State group claimed responsibility for the attack in a statement carried by the IS-linked Aamaq news agency

The attack happened when a militant detonated a suicide vest in a tent in a crowded market in a northern district of the city. It was lunchtime, with the area full of pilgrims.

Many Shia pilgrims are taking part in mourning rituals commemorating the killing of the Prophet Mohammed’s grandson, Hussein, in the 7th Century.

Sunni militants have often used such pilgrimages as targets for attacks causing large scale casualties.

The scene from above.

This year, IS revived its bombing campaign in Baghdad killing hundreds of people, in what is seen as a response to the group’s loss of much of its territory in Iraq.

The latest attack comes as Iraqi forces prepare for an offensive in northern Iraq on Mosul, the last IS-held major city in the country.

Qatar’s daily newspaper The Peninsula also reported that gunmen believed to belong to Islamic State, earlier in the day staged two attacks north of Baghdad.

One targeted a police check-point and the other the house of a Sunni militia chief who supports the government, police sources said.

Eight policemen were killed and 11 others wounded in the first attack which took place Mutaibija, south of the city of the city of Tikrit, while the militants had three killed.

In the second attack, the wife and three children of Numan al-Mujamaie, the leader of the Ishaqi Mobilization militia, were killed when gunmen stormed his house in the town of Ishaq in his absence.

Iraq has seen several bombings in recent months. In July, a massive car bomb in central Baghdad’s popular shopping district of Karradah killed about 300 people and forced the resignation of the country’s interior minister.