Baghdad: Two separate suicide attacks in Iraq killed at least 34 people and wounded scores more today, local and US military authorities said, shattering more than a week of relative calm.
A suicide truck bomb exploded outside a residential complex belonging to a state-run oil company in the town of Beiji, about 250 kilometres north of Baghdad, killing 25 people and wounding 80, police and hospital officials said.
In Baqouba, 60 kilometres northeast of Baghdad, 10 people were killed and five people were wounded in a suicide bombing, the US military said. Baqouba police said Dr Ahmed Fuad of Baqouba hospital put the death toll at nine.
Local officials said a bomber wearing an explosives vest targeted a funeral procession for two members of an Awakening Council group, fighters who have turned against al-Qaida in Iraq, who had been accidentally killed by US troops during a dawn raid.
The US military said in a statement that a coalition forces raid in Baqouba killed two people, one of whom was revealed later to be a member of such a group.
In Beiji, the bomber detonated his explosives-rigged pickup truck when Iraqi police and members of a volunteer security force prevented him from entering the gate of a compound belonging to the state-run North Oil Company, a police officer said.
Local authorities said they feared more victims might be buried in the rubble of two buildings damaged by the suicide truck bomb.
Most of those killed were civilians, and at least four were children, a police officer said. The dead also included guards of the Oil Company and members of the volunteer force.
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