Two suicide attacks in Iraq kill 15 & wound 64 people

A suicide bomber rammed an ambulance packed with explosives into a security headquarters on Wednesday, killing 13 people in the second major attack against Iraqi forces in as many days.

In a separate incident on Wednesday, a suicide bomber killed two Shi'ite pilgrims and wounded 15, on a road between Baquba and Baghdad, two police sources said.

Attacks against Shi'ites are expected to rise ahead of the religious event of Arbain, which culminates next week. Arbain marks a 40-day mourning period for Imam Hussein, a grandson of the Prophet Mohammad who was killed at the battle of Kerbala in the 7th century and who is a central figure of Shi'ite Islam.

Baquba

"We have so far received 13 bodies, and are treating 64 wounded," Firaz al-Dulaimi, a doctor at Baquba hospital, said, referring to the first attack on Wednesday morning in the Diyala provincial capital.

The 10:00 am (0700 GMT) bomb in the middle of Baquba, a restive ethnically mixed city north of Baghdad, targeted an office of the Force Protection Service, the agency responsible for securing the country's government buildings.

One police source said there were two attackers. One of them shot dead three security guards at the gates of the training centre, opening the way for a second assailant to drive the ambulance in.

The blast caused part of a building to collapse, a policeman at the site told Reuters.

"I can see hands and legs of dead policemen sticking out from under the rubble," the policeman said.

We have so far received 13 bodies, and are treating 64 wounded

Firaz al-Dulaimi, a doctor at Baquba hospital

After 90 minutes

About 90 minutes later in the nearby town of Ghalbiyah, a suicide bomber blew up his explosives-filled car in the midst of a crowd of Shiite pilgrims.

Among the wounded were Diyala deputy governor Sadiq al-Husseini and three of his bodyguards.

Husseini was visiting with worshippers as they gathered ahead of commemorations for Arbaeen, which marks 40 days since the anniversary of the death of the revered seventh century Shiite Imam Hussein.

Baquba, and Diyala province, was an al-Qaeda stronghold as recently as 2008. While violence has dropped off dramatically both in Diyala and nationwide since then, the province remains one of Iraq's least secure.

The attacks came a day after a suicide bomber detonated his explosives-packed vest in the middle of a crowd of police recruits in the central city of Tikrit, killing 50 people and wounding up to 150.

It was the deadliest attack to hit Iraq in more than two months, and the first major strike since Maliki named a new cabinet on December 21, ending nine months of stalemate after March elections.

Tikrit's police chief Colonel Ibrahim al-Juburi and the head of the city's emergency response squad Brigadier General Mohammed Majeed were fired in the aftermath of the blast.

Maliki condemned the Tikrit attack, saying "terrorists" had once again targeted the innocent.

"Once again the terrorists returned to their usual tactics of killing the innocent and targeting the brave young people who wanted to serve their country and defend it," he said in a statement Tuesday evening.

"We will follow the case closely until we find who is responsible, and the reasons that let this tragic catastrophe happen."

Violence across Iraq has declined substantially since its peak in 2006 and 2007, but attacks remain common.

Insurgents have stepped up their assaults on Iraqi police and troops since U.S. forces formally ended combat operations last August ahead of a full withdrawal this year.