Dozens die in Iraq blasts

At least 28 people have been killed and scores wounded in twin bombings in a market in Iraq's capital, Baghdad, security officials have said.

Defense and interior ministry officials said that a car bomb went off in Adhamiyah on Monday. A suicide bomber then blew himself up among the crowd that had gathered around the blast scene.

Al Jazeera sources said 68 people were wounded in the blasts.

A doctor said several women and children were among the casualties.

Witnesses said the attack took place on a street lined with restaurants as a bus carrying children to a school drove past.

Adhamiyah, a Sunni neighborhood in a mostly Shia eastern half of the city, saw fierce clashes at the height of Iraq's sectarian violence. Attacks in the area have sharply dropped over the last year.

Despite the improvement in security in large swathes of Iraq, including the capital, armed groups continue to launch near daily attacks, most of them targeting US and Iraqi security forces.

In another attack, in Baquba, capital of volatile northern Diyala province, a teenaged girl in a suicide bomb vest blew herself up at a checkpoint of US-backed security personnel, killing six people and wounding 18.

Police said the bomber was a girl of 13.

PHOTO CAPTION

Baghdad map locating Adhamiyah district

Al-Jazeera

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