A car bombing claimed by the Islamic State killed three people on Friday outside the U.S. consulate in Erbil, in a relatively rare attack in the capital of Iraq’s Kurdistan region. No U.S. personnel were hurt in the blast, according to the U.S. State Department, which said a “vehicle-borne improvised explosive device” exploded right outside the entrance to the heavily fortified compound. Iraq’s Kurdish region is an important partner for the U.S.-led coalition in its campaign to “degrade and destroy” the Islamic State group, which overran large parts of Iraq last summer and threatened to reach Erbil. A Reuters witness heard the blast, which was followed by gunfire and a column of black smoke high above the Ankawa district, a predominantly Christian neighborhood packed with cafes popular with foreigners. “It seems the consulate was the target,” Nihad Qoja, the mayor of Erbil’s city center, told Reuters. […]