Dozens dead in attack on Tikrit, Iraq

April 5 (UPI) -- Iraqi police accused the Islamic State of an attack in the northern city of Tikrit in which up to 35 people died.

A provincial security source told China's state-run Xinhua news agency the attack happened late Tuesday and it was carried out by militants wearing military uniforms. The attack in the central Zuhur district targeted a police checkpoint and the house of a police colonel, who died along with four family members, before the gunmen opened fire on civilians.

Army Maj. Gen. Ghassan al-Jubouri told Turkey's state-run Anadolu Agency that militants detonated suicide bombs during clashes with police. No group has claimed responsibility in the attack but the Islamic State has launched similar assaults in its conflict with the Iraqi government.

Officials imposed a curfew in the city after the attack. Tikrit is about 120 miles north of the capital of Baghdad.

Iraq's Interior Ministry said the situation was brought under control. Iraq seized the city of Tikrit from Islamic State control in 2015 after the militant Islamist group captured it in 2014.

Iraqi security forces are engaged in a ground offensive with the assistance of the U.S.-led international coalition against the Islamic State to capture the city of Mosul.