At least 12 people were killed and 15 others wounded after gunmen attacked a popular cafe in a town north of Baghdad.
Iraqi officials said, three gunmen attacked the coffee shop in the mainly Shi’ite town of Balad, shooting into the crowd shortly after midnight yesterday. Once police arrived at the scene, two of the attackers detonated suicide vests. Balad, about 80 kilometers north of Baghdad, is under heavy security.
The attackers would have had to pass through three police checkpoints before reaching their target. This attack follows a two-day wave of bombings in the capital that have left at least 80 people dead. The Islamic State group claimed responsibility for those attacks.