KIRKUK, Kurdistan Region—A double bombing in the city of Kirkuk Thursday evening killed 21 people and wounded dozens of others, local security officials said.
According to security officials the first bombing was carried out by a suicide bomber who blew himself up inside Salah Teashop in the Kurdish neighborhood of Shorija.
Health officials reported that around 30 people were wounded in the first attack, some of them sustaining severe burns from the blast that also destroyed several vehicles.
Rudaw correspondent Halo Ahmed said "The suicide bomber had targeted the civilian crowd otherwise there are no party or government buildings in this neighborhood.”
Many people rushed to the site of bombing and to Azadi hospital worried and looking for their relatives, he reported.
Ahmed said that two hours after the first attack a planted bomb exploded but didn’t cause any casualties.
Shorija has been the target of at least four deadly attacks in the past few years, killing scores of the neighborhood’s Kurdish residents.
As part of tightening security measures, officials said that they have caught several suspected suicide bombers and militants in the city in recent days.
