Two suicide bombings killed 29 people in Iraq on Tuesday, including 25 when a bomber slammed his vehicle into a truck carrying gas cylinders at an Iraqi army checkpoint near the town of Baiji.
The two attacks appeared to be directed against groups fighting Al-Qaeda militants in Iraq.
The truck bomb attack occurred on the outskirts of the refinery town of Baiji, 200 km north of Baghdad, an official from the joint Iraqi-US-security coordination center in Tikrit said.
The bomber drove his pick-up vehicle into the truck, which was full of cooking gas cylinders, at the checkpoint manned by Iraqi soldiers and members of a group fighting Al-Qaeda, the official said. About 85 people were also wounded.
A medic from the local hospital and the US military both confirmed the attack, which was close to the Baiji oil refinery from where fuel products are distributed across Iraq.
"We do have initial reports of a car bomb in Baiji today and that there were casualties," the military said without giving further details.
Shortly after the Baiji bombing, a suicide bomber blew himself up in the midst of a funeral procession in the city of Baquba, north of Baghdad, killing four people from a similar group fighting Al-Qaeda, police and medicos said.
{{/usCountry}}Shortly after the Baiji bombing, a suicide bomber blew himself up in the midst of a funeral procession in the city of Baquba, north of Baghdad, killing four people from a similar group fighting Al-Qaeda, police and medicos said.
{{/usCountry}}An AFP correspondent on the scene reported that among those killed was Haj arhan Al-Baharzawi, the provincial head of the Brigades of 20th Revolution, a former Sunni insurgent group turned ally of the US military.