Deadly car bomb detonated in Iraq's Tikrit

At least five civilians were killed in a car bomb blast in Iraq's Tikrit on Sunday, police and medical sources said.

The car had been parked close to a restaurant in the northern city, about 175 kilometres (100 miles) north of the capital Baghdad.

Three of the dead were women, the sources said, and another 16 people were wounded.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attack.

Tikrit spent nearly 10 months under Islamic State group rule before Iraqi security forces retook it in the spring of 2015.

Late last year, Iraq announced it had successfully ousted IS from the group's urban strongholds across the country.

But militant cells still wage hit-and-run attacks. This month alone, a deadly string of attacks hit the capital and a car bomb exploded in IS' one-time capital Mosul, killing three.

Meanwhile, hundreds of Basra residents on Saturday mourned a Muslim cleric who had called on locals to take up arms over poor public services in the city.

Police said Wissam al-Ghrawi was shot and killed by unknown assailants outside his home on Saturday night.

Ghrawi was a prominent figure in demonstrations demanding clean water and reliable electricity in the southern Iraqi city.

Basra province generates more than 90 percent of Iraq's oil exports but suffers from contaminated drinking water and regular blackouts.

Tikrit was the birthplace of former Iraq dictator Saddam Hussein with many leading military and political figures coming from the city.

During the US-led invasion of Iraq in 2003, Tikrit was part of the so-called Triangle of Death - or Sunni Triangle - and a flashpoint for violence against international and government forces.