A series of car bombs near Shia places of worship has killed at least 20 people and injured many, a day after multiple blasts had hit two Iraqi cities killing nine people, a year after US forces departed the country.
Three gunmen attacked a police checkpoint on the highway west of Tikrit, killing one policeman and wounding three. A police patrol then chased the gunmen, who abandoned their car and then detonated explosives in it, killing four more police and wounding two, a police lieutenant colonel told the AFP news agency. In the village of Al-Buslaibi, north of Baghdad, a roadside bomb targeting an army patrol killed three soldiers, an army captain said.
A car bomb exploed in Khaznah, a village near Mosul in north Iraq populated by the small Shabak minority, killed seven people and wounded 12, while two car bombs near a Shia place of worship killed five and wounded 20 in the northern flashpoint town of Tuz Khurmatu, police officers and doctors said.
Monday’s violence comes a day after a string of bombings and a shooting which killed 19 people.
Two car bombs and seven roadside bombs on Sunday targeted two Shia places of worship in Kirkuk, one in the city’s north and another in its south, killing a total of five people and wounding 14, a senior police officer told the AFP news agency.
The attacks occurred around 7:30pm local time (16:30GMT), the officer said. A doctor from Kirkuk general hospital confirmed the toll.