Kurdish forces are in full control of Iraq's oil-rich city of Kirkuk after the federal army abandoned their posts, a peshmerga spokesman says.
Iraqi security forces have repelled an assault by Takfiri militants on the highly sensitive city of Samarra, home to one of the holiest Islamic sites.
Unknown gunmen in military uniforms have attacked the city council building in Iraq’s Samarra, occupying the headquarters and holding several people hostage.
21 al-Qaeda-linked militants including a suicide bomber have been killed as a car bomb mistakenly exploded in a militant compound north of Baghdad, an anti-Qaeda militia leader and a police officer said.
At least 14 people have been killed and 31 others wounded when a car bomb exploded in a busy street lined with shops in the Iraqi city of Samarra, police and medics say.
Two bombs exploded in a mosque in Iraq as worshippers entered for prayers on Friday, killing 16 people, police and a doctor said.
A car bomb in the Iraqi city of Samarra has killed 11 people and wounded 27 others in the latest of an intensifying series of attacks in the Arab country.