At least 14 dead - including women and children - in suicide car bombing at Baghdad checkpoint

At least 14 people - including women and children - have been killed by a suicide car bomber at a checkpoint in Iraq.

A police officer at the scene said most of the victims died inside their vehicles while waiting to enter the town of Khalis, about 80 km (50 miles) north of Baghdad. Eight policemen were killed.

'We still have charred bodies inside many vehicles including a minibus packed with women and children,' the police captain said, requesting anonymity.

The blast comes a day after ISIS claimed responsibility for a suicide bomb attack on another security checkpoint in Baghdad.

At least 21 people - including four police officers - were killed in Sunday's attack.

Hospital sources said the death toll was expected to rise, Reuters reported. Another 41 were injured.

The town of Khalis is a Shiite enclave surrounded by Sunni areas in the Diyala province.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for this morning's attack, but ISIS militants have stepped up attacks even as they incur battlefield setbacks in northern and western Iraq.

Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi has come under pressure to improve security since a suicide attack claimed by ISIS earlier this month killed 292 people in central Baghdad, one of the largest attacks of its kind since the US led invasion in 2003.

The murderous organisation have lost much of the territory they seized in 2014 and al-Abadi has pledged to retake their stronghold city of Mosul this year.