Terror Attack Kills Six at Shia Mosque in Iraq’s Kirkuk

TEHRAN (IQNA) – Two suicide bombers killed at least six people and wounded more than 20 in an attack on a Shia mosque in the northern Iraqi city of Kirkuk on Sunday, police and medical sources said.

The attackers struck near a former police station used by members of the pro-government Saraya al-Salam (Peace Brigades), a group formed by Iraqi Shia cleric, Moqtada al-Sadr, on Atlas Street in central Kirkuk, located 238 kilometers (148 miles) north of the capital Baghdad.

Acting Kirkuk Gov. Rakan Saeed appealed to Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi after a meeting of the provincial security panel to send more troops to secure the city.

"Deployed forces from police and Counter Terrorism Service are not enough to cover all areas of Kirkuk. We need to double the troops,” he said in a statement after chairing the meeting, Reuters reported.

The interior ministry confirmed the attacks on the mosque and gave an initial casualty toll of one dead and 16 wounded.

The central government in Baghdad recaptured the city in October along with other territory in northern Iraq claimed by both Baghdad and the Kurds following an offensive launched in retaliation for the Kurdish independence referendum.

No group has claimed responsibility for Sunday’s attacks but the suicide bombings are a trademark of the Daesh (ISIL or ISIS) terrorist group.

In a separate incident, unknown gunmen opened fire with light weapons on a police patrol in eastern Kirkuk, without causing any casualties, police sources said.

Iraqi security officials have said Daesh is likely to wage an insurgency in Iraq after its self-proclaimed caliphate all but collapsed and the militants were dislodged from large areas of the west and north of the country.

Iraqi security forces have recaptured nearly all the territories once controlled by Daesh. Fighting is ongoing in the border areas with Syria where militants are entrenched in the small town of Rawa and nearby areas.