Efforts to push back ISIS militants in northern and western Iraq have been complicated by such sectarian and ethnic rivalries

Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) said it was responsible for a suicide car bomb attack on a police checkpoint in the northern Iraqi town of Tuz Khurmatu on Saturday which left seven people dead and 17 others wounded.

The hardline Sunni militant group said in an online statement distributed by supporters that the target was “rejectionists,” its term for Shiite Muslims.

The attack in Tuz Khurmatu, about 175 km (110 miles) north of Baghdad, threatened to exacerbate tensions between Kurdish and Shiite Turkmen communities in the town, which has seen deadly clashes between paramilitary forces from each group in recent weeks.

Efforts to push back ISIS militants in northern and western Iraq have been complicated by such sectarian and ethnic rivalries.

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