BAGHDAD: A back-to-back car bombing targeting an ethnic minority in northern Iraq and militant attacks on Iraqi soldiers and police killed at least 20 people on Friday, officials said.
Since last year, militants have escalated attacks in Iraq, with violence surging to levels not seen since 2006 and 2007.
The double bombing struck in the morning in Tahrawa, a village inhabited by families from the Shabak ethnic group, killing seven members of the minority. The village is near the city of Mosul, 360 kilometers (225 miles) northwest of Baghdad.
Police officials also said that 43 people were wounded in the explosions. The Shabak have their own distinct language and belief system, which is an offshoot of Shiite Islam. Most live in villages east of Mosul, the provincial capital of the ethnically mixed Ninevah province, which is predominantly Sunni Muslim.
The Shabak have been targeted in the past by Sunni extremists, who consider them apostates. A car bombing in April in another Shabak village near Mosul, Bay Boukh, killed nine.
The Shabak have been targeted in the past by Sunni extremists, who consider them apostates. A car bombing in April in another Shabak village near Mosul, Bay Boukh, killed nine.
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