Car bomb in Iraq kills 7

At least seven people were killed on Wednesday and 35 others wounded in a car bomb explosion near the Iraqi city of Tikrit, officials said.

Police commander Ali al-Bakri said the vehicle was parked outside a restaurant located 30 km north of Tikrit on the road to the major northern city of Mosul, Efe news reported.

No group has so far claimed responsibility for the attack.

Iraqi security forces have recently carried out several operations against cells of the Islamic State terror organization in northern Saladin province, the capital of which is Tikrit.

On Monday, an Iraqi policeman and eight suspected IS members were killed in a shootout in the town of al-Shirqat in Saladin province.

The Iraqi government had declared in December that the country was totally liberated from IS, but during the month of August, 90 Iraqi civilians were killed and 117 wounded in terror attacks or armed conflict, representing an increase in the number of deaths compared to the previous two months.

IS had controlled large swathes of northern and western Iraq, including Mosul, from mid-2014 till the end of 2017.

--IANS

soni/nir