Islamic militants unleashed multiple suicide attacks in the city of Tikrit, north of Baghdad, killing at least 22 people, a provincial official said on Wednesday. Five suicide bombers on foot targeted a police patrol and broke into a police officer’s house in Tikrit’s al-Zihoor neighborhood, according to a Salahuddin provincial council member, Ahmed al-Karim. No group immediately claimed responsibility for the bombings but Islamic State militants have carried out scores of similar attacks to detract from the fighting in Mosul, Iraq’s second-largest city. The Sunni extremist group frequently targets Iraqi security forces and civilians in urban areas.Iraqi forces drove out ISIS militants from Tikrit in April 2015. Since then, IS militants have launched a number of big attacks in and around Tikrit, located about 80 miles (130 kilometers) north of Baghdad.
