A car bomb killed two people and injured six in the Iraqi city of Tikrit on Tuesday, the military said.

The blast - described by the military as a ‘terrorist attack’ - occurred at a checkpoint at the northern entrance to Tikrit, 150 km (95 miles) north of Baghdad.

The two dead were police officers, according to a local police source and a hospital source. In its statement, the military referred to the two dead only as civilians.

The wounded included two soldiers, a police officer and three civilians, according to the police source.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the blast in Tikrit, the hometown of late dictator Saddam Hussein which was controlled by Islamic State militants in 2014-15.

Iraq declared victory over Islamic State in December 2017 after two years of fighting. However, IS militants have continued to carry out insurgent-style attacks on security forces across the country.