Kirkuk:
Sunni militants bombed two Shiite places of worship, known as husseiniyahs, in northern Iraq on Wednesday, an official and witnesses said.
The two husseiniyahs in Sharikhan, north of Nineveh provincial capital Mosul, were bombed early on Wednesday, damaging the structures but causing no casualties, the sources said.
An offensive since June 9, spearheaded by Sunni jihadists from the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) but involving other groups as well, has overrun swathes of five provinces, with Nineveh the first to fall.
ISIL militants adhere to a harsh interpretation of Islamic law and consider Shiites, who make up the majority of Iraq's population, to be heretics.
After folding under the weight of the initial onslaught, security forces are holding off militant assaults in various areas, but have conducted only limited local offensive operations since the crisis began.