In Iraq, the Islamic State militant group has claimed responsibility for a series of suicide attacks that killed at least 14 people on Monday. Eight people were killed and dozens wounded when two suicide bombers detonated their cars in Fallujah.

Meanwhile, in Kerbala city -- about 100 kilometers southwest of Baghdad -- a suicide bomber killed six people and wounded as many more. The attacks come as Iraqi government forces make slow progress in their campaign to liberate Mosul from the Islamists.

On Monday, a mixed Kurdish and Yazidi armed force said it had dislodged ISIL members from five Yazidi villages west of Mosul. Meanwhile, Iraqi soldiers also recaptured the town of Nimrud on Sunday and the nearby ruins of a 3,000-year-old Assyrian city.