Baghdad: Militants unleashed multiple suicide attacks in the city of Tikrit, north of Baghdad, killing at least 31 people, a provincial official said on Wednesday.
Five suicide bombers on foot targeted a police patrol and broke into a police officer’s house in Tikrit’s Al Zihoor neighbourhood, according to Ahmad Al Karim, a provincial council member in Salah Al Deen.
Al Karim told The Associated Press that security forces managed to kill three of the bombers while two blew themselves up.
Ten policemen were among the dead and up to 31 people were wounded in Tuesday night’s attacks, he added.
No group immediately claimed responsibility for the bombings but Daesh terrorists have carried out scores of similar attacks to detract from the fighting in Mosul, Iraq’s second-largest city. The terrorist group frequently targets Iraqi security forces and civilians in urban areas.
Iraqi forces drove out Daesh from Tikrit in April 2015. Since then, the terrorists have launched a number of big attacks in and around Tikrit, located about 130 kilometres north of Baghdad.
Daesh defeats
Daesh has suffered a string of defeats over the past two years — most recently in the Mosul operation where Iraqi forces, backed by a US-led coalition are battling to drive the terrorists out of the western part of the city, a more densely populated area.
Eastern Mosul, which is separated by the Tigris river from the western part of the city, was declared liberated from Daesh in January.
Despite the severe setbacks, Daesh has managed to regularly launch attacks in some Iraqi cities.
A series of large-scale bombings claimed by Daesh have also struck Baghdad since the operation to retake Mosul began in October.
Iraqi and US-led international coalition officials have repeatedly warned that after Mosul, Daesh will likely return to its insurgent roots as it loses more territory in both Iraq and neighbouring Syria.
