Iraq bomb blasts cause carnage

The attacks in the east of Iraq began on Sunday morning as a suicide bomber set off his explosive belt at the gate of a compound housing Kurdish security and political offices in Qara Tapah. Minutes later two cars laden with explosives were driven into the compound, causing extensive damage.

At least 25 people were killed, and sixty more injured. Victims included both civilians and soldiers, according to hospital sources. The attacks followed a series of bombings in the capital, Baghdad, on Saturday that left at least 45 people dead.

"At 10:30 this morning (0730 UTC), three car bombs struck Qara Tapah," the town's mayor, Wahab Ahmed confirmed. He himself was lightly wounded in the attack.

The mayor said the three car bombs targeted his office, a building used by the Kurds' internal security service and an office of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan party. A security officer said most of the dead were Kurdish peshmerga veterans who had volunteered to return to active duty to fight so-called "Islamic State" (IS) militants.

Qara Tapah lies close to Jalawla in Iraq's eastern Diyala province, which borders Iran. The region has seen intense fighting between IS militants and Iraqi federal troops backed by Kurdish and Shiite militia.

In a separate incident, two improvised explosive devices (IEDs) detonated at a local market in the provincial capital of Baquba, killing six civilians and wounding 10, according to police sources.

Police chief targeted

The police chief of Iraq's western al-Anbar province, Brigadier General Ahmed al-Dulaimi, was killed when a bomb hit his convoy on Sunday, according to Interior Ministry officials. "The general was out on patrol in the military parameter of al-Bu Risha, checking on the sectors where the confrontations with IS insurgents are taking place. His convoy was targeted by two IEDs," a security source said.

Iraq's Interior Ministry confirmed the killing and called al-Dulaimi a "hero who set a good example for self-sacrifice." It praised his role in reorganizing the provincial police force and leading an operation which had caused heavy casualties among IS militants.

Meanwhile, Kurdish fighters in the town of Kobani, on the border between Syria and Turkey, have continued to fight off an IS assault on the town.

jm/tj (Reuters, AP, AFP)