Suicide bombings kill five in east Mosul, say security sources

Erbil, Iraq: Five people were killed, including three Iraqi soldiers, in two suicide bombings on Sunday that hit districts recently retaken from Islamic State in eastern Mosul, security sources said.

The first attack targeted an army checkpoint, killing three soldiers, and the second a gathering of civilians in the commercial district known as "My Fair Lady," killing two.

A dozen people were also wounded in the two attacks carried out by men wearing explosive vests, the sources said, contacted from Erbil, the Kurdish region`s capital east of Mosul.

The bombers are suspected by the security sources to have crossed into eastern Mosul from the western side which is still under Islamic State control.

U.S.-backed forces dislodged Islamic State from the east side of Mosul in the first phase of an offensive that concluded last month. The second phase of the campaign, on the western side of Mosul, began on Sunday.

A restaurant in the My Fair Lady area and called by the same name was hit on February 10 by a suicide bombing that killed at least 10 people.