Two suicide bombers killed 21 people and wounded 32 in northern Iraq today, police said.
Two men entered a crowded cafe in Sinjar, whose inhabitants are from the minority Yazidi sect, and detonated explosive vests.
The town is near the restive city of Mosul, which has seen a series of high-profile bombings in the past fortnight.
The US military said on Tuesday that al Qaeda has shown itself to be resilient in northern Iraq with a string of deadly bombings there.
Insurgents have been able to hide out in Mosul's remote and mountainous areas.
Bombings and shootings are reported almost daily in and around Mosul, the capital of the northern province of Nineveh, where insurgents have exploited disputes between Arabs and Kurds even though their influence has waned elsewhere in Iraq.
Reuters