Iraqi officials say suicide bombers have killed at least 20 people - including children - in attacks on an elementary school in a northern village and among Shi'ite pilgrims in Baghdad.
Sunday's blasts began in the Turkmen Shi'ite village of Qabak, outside Tal Afar, where a suicide bomber drove a truck with explosives into the playground of a primary school, killing 12 students, the school principal and two policemen. Dozens of people were wounded.
A second bomber targeted a nearby police station.
In Baghdad, a suicide bomber on foot detonated explosives among pilgrims walking to a Shi'ite shrine in a northern district, killing at least five people and wounding about 20 others.
The blasts came a day after a series of bombings targeting Shi'ites killed more than 65 people in Iraq.
There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attacks, but al-Qaida's branch in Iraq has frequently used suicide bombers and car bombs against Shi'ite civilians in an effort to undermine the Shi'ite-led government. The group's ideology considers Shi'ites heretics.
Deadly violence has climbed to its highest level since 2008, and analysts express fears Iraq is sliding back into Sunni-Shi'ite civil war.
Sunday's blasts began in the Turkmen Shi'ite village of Qabak, outside Tal Afar, where a suicide bomber drove a truck with explosives into the playground of a primary school, killing 12 students, the school principal and two policemen. Dozens of people were wounded.
A second bomber targeted a nearby police station.
In Baghdad, a suicide bomber on foot detonated explosives among pilgrims walking to a Shi'ite shrine in a northern district, killing at least five people and wounding about 20 others.
The blasts came a day after a series of bombings targeting Shi'ites killed more than 65 people in Iraq.
There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attacks, but al-Qaida's branch in Iraq has frequently used suicide bombers and car bombs against Shi'ite civilians in an effort to undermine the Shi'ite-led government. The group's ideology considers Shi'ites heretics.
Deadly violence has climbed to its highest level since 2008, and analysts express fears Iraq is sliding back into Sunni-Shi'ite civil war.
