DUBAI: Insurgents from the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIS) again targeted one of the holiest sites of Shia Muslims in the Iraqi city of Samarra, Press TV reported on Thursday.
Iran based news channel said the Takfiri militants fired rockets towards the shrines of two Shia Imams in the embattled city on Wednesday.
According to the report at least fourteen people, including a woman and a child, were killed and injured in the attacks.
The city, located nearly 120 kilometers north of Baghdad, is home to the holy shrines of Imam al-Hadi and Imam Hassan al-Askari, 10th and 11th Shia Imams and a major pilgrimage site visited by tens of millions of Muslims annually despite the tense security situation in the area.
In 2006, the holy sites were demolished in a similar attack by al-Qaeda militants.
Iraq is currently witnessing a wave of violence unprecedented in recent years.
On June 10, the ISIS militants took control of Mosul, the capital of Nineveh Province, which was followed by the fall of Tikrit, located 140 kilometers (87 miles) northwest of the capital Baghdad.
Hundreds of thousands of Iraqi people have been forced out of their homes since the attacks.
Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki has vowed that the countrys security forces would confront the foreign-sponsored terrorists, describing the seizure of Mosul as a conspiracy. Maliki has also said Saudi Arabia and Qatar are responsible for the security crisis and growing terrorism in his country, denouncing the Al Saud regime as a major supporter of global terrorism.
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