Iraq: Militant group claims attack that killed 25

An Iraqi policeman inspects the site of a suicide attack at a polling center in Kirkuk, 290 kilometers (180 miles) north of Baghdad, Iraq, Monday, April 28, 2014.

Baghdad:  An al Qaida spin-off group has claimed responsibility for a suicide attack in a Kurdish town northeast of Baghdad that killed at least 25 people the previous day.

The bomber blew himself up among a group of Kurds celebrating the appearance on local TV of Iraq's ailing president, Jalal Talabani, a Kurd who has been in Germany since 2012 for medical treatment.


The attack in the town of Khanaqin in the turbulent Diyala province also wounded 35 people, sending that day death toll from other attacks to nearly 50.

The Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant took credit for the attack in a posting Tuesday on one of its Twitter accounts.

The authenticity of the statement could not be independently verified but its style was consistent with previous ones.