A suicide bombing in Iraq has targeted the Shiite sacred city of Karbala, killing at least six civilians, in the latest attempt by the Islamic State group to distract from the government forces' offensive on the IS-held northern city of Mosul.

A breakaway faction of the Taliban in Pakistan has claimed responsibility for the suicide attack at a hospital in Quetta which killed at least 64 people.

A suspect in the Brussels airport bombing has been named by Belgian media as Najim Laachraoui, who was already believed to be linked to last year's massacre in Paris.

Kurdish militants have claimed a suicide bombing in Ankara that killed 37 people this week, and have warned of further attacks. Meanwhile, Germany has shut down its diplomatic missions and schools in Turkey.

Turkish police have arrested one person in connection with the suicide bombing in Istanbul that killed 10 foreigners, most of them German tourists.

At least 43 people were killed and more than 240 wounded yesterday in two suicide bomb blasts claimed by Islamic State in a crowded residential district in Beirut’s southern suburbs, a stronghold of the Shi’ite Muslim group Hezbollah.

Two suicide attacks have targeted police checkpoints in commercial areas in Iraq’s capital Baghdad, killing at least 14 people

Five people are dead following a suicide bombing during a Christian church service in north-east Nigeria.

A Taliban suicide bomber has detonated an explosives-packed car near the international airport in Afghanistan's capital, killing at least three people and wounding 18.