At least 48 people were killed and nearly 100 wounded in two separate suicide car bomb attacks in Iraq.
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| A crowd of men gather around the remains of a car bomb at a produce market in southeast Baghdad today. |
At least 35 people were killed and 50 wounded when a suicide car bomber attacked the funeral of a Shi'ite Muslim sheikh north of Baghdad today, police said.
The car bomb exploded near crowded condolence tents at the funeral in Abu Sayda near Baquba, 65 km (40 miles) north of Baghdad, police colonel Muthaffar Aboud said.
"At least 35 people were killed and 50 were wounded," Aboud said.
Earlier today another car bomb killed at least 13 people at a market in southeast Baghdad today, a day after more than 80 people were killed in a series of suicide attacks in the capital and a northeastern town.
The blast in the Diyala Bridge section of Baghdad also wounded 20 people, police said. They said the toll could rise.
The attacks came as more than 50 Iraqi politicians from across the country's sectarian divide gathered for reconciliation talks in Cairo aimed at easing bloodshed that has plagued Iraq since the US-led invasion in 2003.
In a second blast today, a suicide bomber in a car attacked a police convoy in central Baghdad, wounding two police and eight civilians, police said.
Yesterday, 77 people were killed and more than 80 wounded in twin suicide bomb attacks on mosques in the town of Khanaqin, near the border with Iran in northeastern Iraq.
Twin suicide car bombs also detonated outside a popular hotel in Baghdad, destroying an apartment building and killing six people. More than 40 were wounded.
Insurgents are waging a campaign of suicide bombings, shootings and assassinations in a bid to topple the US-backed Iraqi government.