At least 16 people have been killed and many wounded after a female suicide bomber blew herself up among policemen in Diyala province, according to Iraqi police and hospital sources.The bomber detonated her explosive vest on Sunday beside a police patrol near the gate of the provincial governor's headquarters and a courthouse in Baquba, a security official said.
Dr Ahmed Fuad of Baquba hospital said 16 bodies had been received by the hospital's mortuary.
Among those killed were eight policemen, two women and a child, he told the AFP news agency.
An AFP correspondent on the scene said several police vehicles were set alight by the explosion, and nearby buildings were also damaged by the blast.
Baquba and surrounding areas have seen a series of suicide bombings by women over the past year.
Diyala, a stronghold of al-Qaeda in Iraq, remains one of the most dangerous regions in Iraq despite levels of violence nationwide hitting a four-year low.
Iraqi and US forces have been engaged in a sustained offensive against al-Qaeda in Diyala.
In another attack on Sunday, four people were killed when their car struck a roadside bomb on a road west of the oil hub of Kirkuk in northern Iraq, a police officer said.
Two others were wounded in the blast.
In a similar incident, three people including two women were killed when their car hit a roadside bomb south of Kirkuk, local police said.
