Two car bombs exploded within minutes of one another in the Iraqi city of Mosul, killing nine people and wounding 29, police said.
The first bomb went off in a residential area of northern Mosul, home to minority Shabaks, wounding seven people, police said.
The second bomb exploded about 10 minutes later near a Shia mosque several kilometres away in another Shabak area of northern Mosul, killing nine people and wounding 22 others.
Mosul, a volatile ethnic and religious mix of Arabs, Kurds, Christians and other minorities, has become Iraq's most violent city as attacks have declined sharply across the rest of the country.
US combat troops withdrew from central Mosul, as they did from other city and town centres, at the end of last month as part of a plan to withdraw entirely by 2012.
Reuters