KIRKUK, Iraq, Nov. 5 (Xinhua) -- At least five people were killed and 15 others wounded Sunday in two suicide bomb attacks targeting a paramilitary Hashd Shaabi base in the ethnically-mixed city of Kirkuk, a local police source said.
The attacks occurred in the afternoon when a suicide bomber detonated his explosive belt at the entrance of the headquarters of a Hashd Shaabi group, known as Saraya al-Salam, at Atlas Street in central Kirkuk city, some 250 km north of the Iraqi capital of Baghdad, the source told Xinhua on condition of anonymity.
A few minutes later, another suicide bomber blew up his explosive belt at the scene, as people and security forces were evacuating the casualty of the first blast, the source said.
The attackers apparently followed the old tactic of first creating an initial explosion to attract security forces and people, and then setting off another blast to inflict heavier casualties.
Saraya al-Salam, or Peace Companies, are a militia linked to the Iraqi Shiite community and are a revival of the previously known as "Mahdi Army" militia affiliated with the Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr after the U.S.-led invasion in 2003.
Sadr sent the Saraya al-Salam militiamen to the city of Kirkuk after the Iraqi forces took control of the oil-rich province of Kirkuk, which is part of the disputed areas claimed by both Baghdad and the semi-autonomous region of Kurdistan.
No group has so far claimed responsibility for the attacks, but the IS militant group, in most cases, is responsible for such suicide bomb attacks, targeting security forces and areas where crowds of people gather, including markets, cafes and mosques across Iraq.
