Car bombing kills at least 10 in Iraq's Baquba: officials

[BAQUBA] A car bomb exploded on Monday in a busy area of the Iraqi city of Baquba, killing at least 10 people, a senior military official and a doctor said.

"A car bomb went off in the Shifta area of central Baquba, killing 10 people and wounding 35. This is an initial toll," a lieutenant colonel in the regional operations command said.

A doctor at Baquba hospital and a police captain gave the same toll.

Shifta is a busy area in central Baquba, a city which is the capital of the province of Diyala and lies about 70 kilometres (40 miles) northeast of Baghdad.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attack, but all such bombings recently have been claimed by the Islamic State group that took over large parts of Iraq nearly two years ago.

Diyala province was declared "liberated" from IS in January 2015, but ending their open control of populated areas has not brought an end to attacks.

Baquba and other towns in Diyala province have been hit by a number of large bomb attacks carried out by the jihadists.

Diyala has also been the scene of deadly sectarian violence over the years, and some of the Shiite militia groups currently active in the area have been accused of abuses.

AFP