Tasnim – Iran’s Foreign Ministry Spokesman Bahram Qassemi strongly condemned Sunday terrorist attacks in the Iraqi cities of Tikrit and Samarra that killed several people, including Iranian pilgrims.

Expressing condolences to the families of victims of the deadly attacks, Qassemi reminded the international community of its responsibility to battle terrorism and fight off Takfiri groups.

“The Islamic Republic of Iran will stand beside the Iraqi government and nation until the complete defeat… of terrorism,” he added.

The spokesman also described the cruel attacks as a result of consecutive defeats that terrorists have suffered in Iraq.

On Sunday, suicide bombers driving ambulances packed with explosives detonated their vehicles at a checkpoint and a car park for Shiite pilgrims in two Iraqi cities, killing at least 21 people and wounding dozens, officials said.

The twin terrorist attacks took place in Tikrit and Samarra.

In Tikrit, a bomber detonated his explosives-laden ambulance at the southern entrance to the city during the morning rush hour, killing 13 people, police and hospital sources said.

Another attacker detonated a vehicle in a car park for pilgrims visiting one of Shiite Muslims’ holiest sites, the shrines of Imam Hadi (AS) and his son Imam Hassan al-Askari (AS), 125 km north of capital Baghdad.

The bomb killed at least eight people, local officials said, including two Iranian pilgrims. The local operation command, a joint military and police unit, said the vehicle used in Samarra was also an ambulance.

According to Head of the Iranian Red Crescent Society Relief and Rescue Organization Pirhossein Koulivand, the bomb blast in Samarra blew up a nearby bus carrying Iranian passengers.

He told Tasnim that two Iranians, a man and a woman, were killed and 16 others injured in the explosion.