Two attackers shot several civilians on Monday in the Nahrawan area southeast of Baghdad before one blew himself up and the other was killed by security forces, the Iraqi Interior Ministry said, without providing official casualty figures.

Local media reported at least 17 people were killed and 28 wounded. An interior ministry spokesman described it as "a terrorist attack by two terrorist suicide attackers who fired indiscriminately on citizens in the Nahrawan area".

Suicide bombings are a trademark of Islamic State, which later claimed responsibility for the attack. Iraqi security officials say the group is likely to wage an insurgency after its self-proclaimed caliphate collapsed and its militants were dislodged from territories they held in the country.