The twin attacks took place in Tikrit and Samarra, as Iraqi troops and security forces battled to retake the northern city of Mosul from Islamic State militants who have controlled it for more than two years.
They appeared to be part of a series of diversionary attacks by the ultra-hardline Sunni Islamists, who have struck the Kurdish-controlled city of Kirkuk, the capital Baghdad and a western desert town during the three-week Mosul campaign.
Islamic State’s Amaq news agency said the attacks were carried out by the militant group.
In Tikrit, a bomber detonated his explosives-laden
ambulance at the southern entrance to the city during the morning rush
hour, killing 13 people, police and hospital sources said.
Another attacker detonated a vehicle in a car park
for pilgrims visiting one of Shia Islam’s holiest shrines, al-Askari
mosque in Samarra, south of Tikrit.
The bomb killed at least eight people, local
officials said, including two Iranian pilgrims. The local operation
command, a joint military and police unit, said the vehicle used in
Samarra was also an ambulance.
Authorities in both cities declared curfews, fearing possible further attacks.
Amaq said two suicide bombers struck in Samarra, the
first detonating a car bomb and the second activating an explosives vest
among a group of people who survived the first blast. It said the
Tikrit attack was carried out by a single car bomber.
Iraqi troops and security forces, backed by a US-led
international coalition, are battling Islamic State in the northern city
of Mosul. Special forces have entered eastern districts, where they
faced fierce resistance from the militants who deployed car bombs,
snipers and mortar fire against them.
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