The Latest: At least 10 dead in attack on Iraq checkpoint

BAGHDAD – The Latest on developments in Iraq (all times local):

3:45 p.m.

The governor of Iraq's southern Thi Qar province says militants have attacked a checkpoint and nearby restaurant, killing at least 10 people and wounding 29.

Yahya al-Nassiri says Thursday's attack started with militants opening fire at the checkpoint and the restaurant on the main highway that links Baghdad with the southern provinces. That was followed by two suicide bombers, including one driving an explosives-laden car, he said.

Al-Nassiri says the dead included Iranian pilgrims and a policeman.

No group immediately claimed responsibility for the attack. The Islamic State group often claims responsibility for large-scale attacks targeting security forces and Shiite civilians in Iraq.

Shiite Muslim-dominate Thi Qar is located about 200 miles (320 kilometers) southeast of Baghdad.

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2:26 p.m.

An Iraqi lawmaker says parliament has dismissed the Kurdish governor of Iraq's ethnically-mixed Kirkuk province upon a request from the prime minister.

Hussein al-Maliki says that all Kurdish lawmakers boycotted Thursday's session, while Arab lawmakers voted in favor. A breakdown for the vote was not immediately available.

Al-Maliki did not say why the governor was fired, but the move came after Kirkuk's provincial council voted to take part in a referendum on Kurdish independence slated for later this month.

The Kurds took control of the oil-rich province, which also contains large Arab, Turkmen and Christian communities, when the Islamic State group swept across Iraq in the summer of 2014 and the Iraqi military crumbled.