A car bomb targeting displaced members of a tiny Kurdish sect near Iraq’s main northern city of Mosul killed seven people on Monday, the latest in a spate of deadly attacks since US troops left a month ago.
The attack in the town of Bartala, in Nineveh province, struck inside the Al-Ghadir camp housing displaced members of the Shabak community, an army official and a medic at Mosul hospital said.
Seven people were killed, including an unspecified number of women and children, and four were wounded, the officials said, speaking on condition of anonymity.
The medic said some of the casualties had been transferred to hospital in the nearby Kurdish regional capital Arbil, but did not give further details.
The Shabak community numbers about 30,000 people living in 35 villages in Nineveh, and many want to become part of the autonomous Kurdish region of northern Iraq.
They speak a distinct language and largely follow a faith that is a blend of Shia Islam and local beliefs.
The community was persecuted under ousted Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein, and after the 2003 US-led invasion of Iraq they were targeted several times by Al-Qaeda.
