Baghdad, Dec 13 (IANS): Kurdish security forces have captured a terrorist group which planned attacks on offices of Kurdish parties in the semi-autonomous region of Kurdistan and was responsible for deadly suicide attacks in Erbil and Kirkuk, a security official said Saturday.

"We have captured the terrorist group which carried out the suicide attack on the provincial government compound in Erbil last month, and the suicide attack that targeted a coffee shop in the city of Kirkuk," Xinhua quoted Tariq Nouri, head of Erbil's provincial security service, as telling reporters at a press conference in the provincial capital, some 350 km north of Baghdad.

The arrested group is affiliated to the Islamic State (IS) militant group and planned to carry out attacks in the city of Sulaimaniyah, some 375 km northeast of Baghdad, on the offices of the two main Kurdish parties -- Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK), of which the Iraqi President Fuad Masoum is a leading figure, and Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP), led by regional President Masoud Barzani -- Nouri said.

The group consisted of nine terrorists -- three Kurds, five Arabs and one from the Turkoman minority, he said.

Nouri also showed a videotape about the confessions of the nine detainees in which they explained how they planned and implemented their attacks.

The suicide attack in Erbil occurred Nov 19, when a suicide bomber rammed an explosives-laden car into the entrance of Erbil's provincial government compound in the central part of the city and blew it up, killing at least four security personnel and wounding 27 others.

Another suicide attack took place Dec 5, when a suicide bomber with an explosive vest blew himself up in a cafe in the city of Kirkuk, some 250 km north of Baghdad, killing at least 15 people and wounding 20 others.

Iraq has been witnessing some of the worst violence in years, leaving 5,576 civilians dead in the first half of this year, with 11,666 more wounded, according to a recent UN report.