(Adds details, second explosion, updates toll)
BAGHDAD, April 26 (Reuters) – Ten people were killed and 18
others wounded when two explosions struck a popular coffee shop
in the restive Iraqi province of Diyala, security sources said
on Thursday.
Diyala province, a fertile agricultural area, has long been
one of the most volatile regions in Iraq, inhabited by a mix of
Sunnis, Shi’ites and Kurds.
The attacks took place in a mainly Sunni village on the
outskirts of Baquba, 65 km (40 miles) northeast of Baghdad, a
policeman in the village and a source in Diyala operations
command said.
The sources said the first explosion, set off by a suicide
car bomber, killed 10 people and wounded 15 others. The
policeman said a second bomb planted inside the coffee shop
wounded three more people.
“We received 10 bodies and 18 wounded,” Abdul-Razaq Hussein,
a doctor in Baquba hospital, told Reuters, adding that the toll
was final.
Tensions between Shi’ites, Sunnis and Kurds in Iraq’s
coalition government have been high since U.S. forces withdrew
in December, raising fears of a return to the sectarian
violence that almost drove the country to the edge of civil war
a few years ago.
Although violence in Iraq has dropped sharply from the
height of sectarian fighting in 2006-07, bombings and killings
still occur on a daily basis.
Five civilians were killed and 27 others wounded earlier on
Thursday when a roadside bomb and a car bomb exploded in
Baghdad.
Last Thursday, more than 20 bombs hit cities and towns
across Iraq, killing at least 36 people and wounding almost 150.
(Writing by Serena Chaudhry; Editing by Michael Roddy)
