IRAQ:A suicide bomber killed 10 people in Iraq yesterday, Iraqi authorities said, the latest in a wave of suicide attacks that has seen a major strike nearly every day of the past week.
Iraqi army Maj-Gen Abdul-Karim al-Rubaie, chief of security operations for the volatile Diyala province, said the bomber blew herself up with an explosive vest at a checkpoint in the provincial capital Baquba, north of Baghdad.
The US military said the bomber jumped onto the bonnet of a car driven by a member of a volunteer neighbourhood patrol, killing the driver and three others. The Iraqi authorities said the bomber was a woman, while the US military said the perpetrator was male.
The attack came a day after a bomber detonated his explosive vest in a tent crowded with mourners at a Baghdad funeral. Police raised the death toll from that strike to 34 yesterday, making it the worst in the capital in six months.
US forces said the strikes showed al-Qaeda militants can still carry out attacks that kill large numbers of people despite a decline in violence.
"We have said all along . . . they do still have the capability to conduct these horrific, barbaric attacks that target innocent civilians in their effort to try to excite sectarian tensions," spokesman Maj-Gen Kevin Bergner said.
Yesterday's bomb struck near crowded shops and stalls. A Reuters photographer at the scene said he saw pools of blood, burnt hair and severed body parts.
He later counted five dead bodies and 16 wounded at a hospital. Police told him other casualties, including 28 wounded, were taken elsewhere. - ( Reuters )