RNA - Foreign Ministry Spokesman Bahram Qassemi extended his condolences to the family members of those Iraqi nationals and Iranian pilgrims who were killed in the terrorist blasts, and reminded the international community of its responsibility to fight against the spread of terrorism and the savage acts of the Takfiri groups.
He described the brutal killing of innocent people as the result of the terrorists' continued failure in attaining their ominous goals in Iraq, and underlined, "The Islamic Republic of Iran will remain beside the Iraqi government and nation until the ultimate defeat of the terrorists and their cleansing" from Iraq.
Suicide bombers using explosives-laden ambulances killed at least 21 people in the two Iraqi cities of Tikrit and Samarra, where Shiite pilgrims, some of them Iranians, were targeted.
A suicide bomber drove a booby-trapped ambulance into a line of vehicles queuing at a checkpoint at the Southern entrance to the city, once the hometown of executed former leader Saddam Hussein.
In Samarra, further South, another ambulance was detonated in a car park for Shiite pilgrims attending the al-Askari mosque. At least 10 Iranians were among the killed pilgrims.
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