Islamic State kill 31 in Tikrit attacks – security sources, medics

(Reuters/IraqiNews.com) At least 31 people were killed, including 14 police officers, and more than 40 wounded in attacks overnight by Islamic State militants in the northern Iraqi city of Tikrit, security and medical sources said on Wednesday.

The militants wore police uniforms and used a police vehicle to enter the city, located 175 km (110 miles) north of Baghdad, police colonel Khalid Mahmoud told Reuters. He said there were around 10 attackers, including two suicide bombers.

A total of 31 bodies were taken to hospital, including 14 belonging to policemen, said Nawfal Mustafa, a doctor at the city’s main hospital. The death toll rose in the morning as more bodies were found, belonging to civilians killed in their shops.

The attacks targeted a police checkpoint and the house of a police colonel, who was killed with four members of his family, officers said.

The Iraqi Interior Ministry had, however, made no mention of the casualties, and declared controlling the situation after thwarting an attack by suicide bombers in Tikrit, the capital of Salahuddin province.

Interior Ministry spokesperson Saad Maan said security troops in Salahuddin killed two suicide bombers who attempted attacking a police patrol at al-Zohour district in Tikrit.

As many as 1,115 persons, excluding security personnel, were killed and injured due to violence in the country, in March, according to The United Nations Assistance Mission in Iraq (UNAMI).