At least 12 people were killed on Saturday when two suicide bombers
attacked a crowded swimming pool in northern Iraq, a local official and
police sources said.
The attacks in the town of Tuz Khurmatu,
about 175km north of the capital Baghdad, left 45 others wounded. Most
of the victims were Shi'ites from the country's ethnic Turkmen minority.
There
was no immediate claim of responsibility, but Islamic State militants
have recently launched a string of bombings in Baghdad and other
provinces, including a huge attack earlier this month in Diyala province
that killed more than 100 people.
Security forces and militia
groups are currently focused on the western province of Anbar, where
they have been gearing up for an offensive to retake the mainly Sunni
governorate, Iraq's largest, from the radical Sunni group.
The
mayor of Tuz Khurmatu, Ali al-Huasaini, and two police sources said a
suicide attacker detonated his explosives vest at a swimming pool where
dozens of men and children were swimming in scorching summer heat.