Five Isis suicide bombers kill 15 in Iraq in coordinated attack on Shia wedding near city of Kerbala

At least 15 people have been killed in near the southern Iraqi city of Kerbala after five suicide bomber targeted a Shia wedding in the village of Ein Tamer.

Iraqi police confirmed the number of dead at the wedding, explaining the blast occurred late on (Sunday) 29 August. They said the attacks were carried out by the Sunni terror group Islamic State (Isis) which has carried out a series of attacks on the Shia majority in Iraq.

Associated Press reported that security forces were able to shoot dead four of the five suicide bombers before they were able to detonate their devices, preventing a far higher death toll.

While the Islamic State has not claimed responsibility for the attack, the suicide bombing bears all the hallmarks of the group which has seen it's sphere of power and territory drastically reduced in Iraq over the past year.

The extremist group was able to expand rapidly over the north of the Middle Eastern country in 2014, crossing over the border from Syria and exploiting Sunni apathy over the policies of a Shia majority government in Baghdad.

The Iraqi army, backed by US air strikes, has since clawed back territory from Isis and is now preparing from an assault on the group's defacto capital in the country, Mosul.

As the Islamic State's control over territory and its capacity to carry out military operations has diminished, it has increasingly resorted to suicide attacks on so-called "soft targets", attacking markets and weddings.

In July the Islamic State killed more than 200 in an attack on a Shia market in Baghdad. The suicide bomb attack was the bloodiest attack in the country since the US invasion in 2003.

Outside of the country, Isis has increasingly targeted weddings. Turkish authorities have blamed an attack on a marriage party in the Kurdish province of Gaziantep. Twenty two people were killed when a suicide bomber detonated an explosive device at the celebration.