A suicide bomber detonated his car bomb at the southern entrance of Tikrit while a second blew up an ambulance in a parking lot in Samarra, perhaps with the help of a third assailant.
The attack in Tikrit killed at least 15 people dead and 33 injured, while 10 people were killed in Samarra, according to security officials and health.
Iranian pilgrims were among the victims in Samarra, home to an important Shiite shrine. In Tehran, Iran's Foreign Ministry has "strongly condemned" the attack without specifying the number of fatalities.
In a statement, the IU claimed the attacks but said that there were three suicide bombers, including two in Samarra.
A lieutenant colonel police also spoke of two suicide bombers in Samarra but other sources have mentioned only one.
The extremist organization called two suicide bombers from "Al-Moslawi" a war name suggesting they were from Mosul, the second largest city and the last bastion of EI in Iraq that the Iraqi forces are trying to resume .
Since the start of the offensive in Mosul on 17 October EI conducted several attacks as a diversion.
Sunni ultraradical group had seized large swathes of territory north and west of Baghdad in 2014 but Iraqi forces, supported by the international coalition under US command, have gained ground since.
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