DHAKA: Two suicide bombers in Iraq killed at least 17 people in apparent revenge attacks after a major assault on a Sunni mosque heightened sectarian tensions.

In Baghdad, a bomber rammed a vehicle into an intelligence headquarters on Saturday, killing at least eight people, police and medical sources said, reports The Straits Times.

Near Tikrit, a suicide bomber driving a military Humvee packed with explosives attacked a gathering of soldiers and Shia militias on Friday night, killing nine.

Shia militiamen machinegunned 68 worshippers at a village mosque in Diyala Province on Friday as politicians try to form a power-sharing government capable of countering Islamic State militants.

An advance by Islamic State through northern Iraq has alarmed the Baghdad government and its Western allies and drawn US airstrikes in Iraq for the first time since the withdrawal of American troops in 2011.

BDST: 2026 HRS, AUG 23, 2014