At least 15 people have been reportedly killed and 60 others wounded in a suicide bomb attack in northern Iraq on Thursday.
The bombing occurred when a suicide attacker detonated a truck bomb in Muwafaqiya, a village of the Shiite Shabak community near Mosul, some 400 km north of Baghdad.
According to reports, no group has claimed responsibility for the attack, but it is speculated that like in previous instances, the al-Qaeda front in Iraq could be responsible for the attack.
The incident comes as Iraq is trying to fend off the spillover of the escalating violence in neighboring Syria.