Fifteen Iraqi civilians died on Sunday when a suicide bomber detonated a truck full of explosives in an elementary school playground.
This was only one of the two attacks that the city of Tel Afar suffered on Sunday as a police station was also struck by a suicide bomber just moments earlier.
Abul Al Abbas, the mayor of Tel Afar, told Reuters, “We were exposed to two big explosions today in which dozens were killed or injured. The first was a truck bomb targeting a police station and the second was detonated inside the primary school.”
No group has claimed responsibility for the attacks, but an anonymous official insinuated that al Qaeda was behind Sunday’s events.
“The fingerprints of al Qaeda are clear on both attacks,” he said.
The two blasts follow one of the deadliest days in Iraq’s recent history where 66 people were killed in two separate bombings directed at Shi’ite civilians, says The Telegraph. Many believe the recent surge in violence is accelerated by the growing tension in Syria and worry that Iraq is returning to the days of brutality which almost prompted an Iraqi civil war.