BAGHDAD - A suicide bomber struck Monday in a crowd gathered at the site of an explosion that moments earlier had damaged a bus filled with schoolgirls, with both blasts killing at least 28 people and wounding 68 others, authorities said.
Also Monday, a female suicide bomber attacked a security checkpoint in downtown Baqouba, killing five people including a local leader of Sunni group opposed to al Qaeda, police said. Fifteen other people were wounded in that explosion, 55 kilometres northeast of Baghdad.
The twin blasts -- the deadliest in Baghdad in months -- occurred during the morning rush hour in the mostly Shiite Kasrah section of Azamiyah neighbourhood in the northern part of the Iraqi capital. They shattered storefronts along a crowded street and set fire to more than a dozen cars.
Police said the first explosion damaged a minibus carrying young girls to school. The second happened when a suicide bomber detonated an explosive belt in the middle of a crowd that had gathered around the vehicle.
Police officials giving the toll were unclear how many died in each blast.
The Interior Ministry, which controls the police, gave the casualty figure of 28 dead and 68 wounded. A check of four hospitals in the Baghdad area indicated 29 were killed, and hospital officials said some of the wounded were in critical condition.
Abbas Fadhil said he was working in a nearby restaurant that was damaged in the blasts.
"I rushed to the site and saw several girl students trapped in a bus and screaming for help. We took the girls outside the bus and rushed them to the hospitals," he said.
Associated Press Television News video showed the minibus pocked with shrapnel marks with the floor soaked in blood. Girls' shoes were scattered about amid the wreckage.
Ahmed Riyadh, 54, owner of a nearby grocery, said called it a "vicious attack" that "did not differentiate between Shiites and Sunnis."
"We are fed up with such attacks and we want only to live in peace," he said. "The politicians should work hard and set aside their differences to stop the bloodshed."
No group claimed responsibility for the blasts, the single deadliest attack in the Iraqi capital in weeks.
But suicide attacks against Shiite civilians are the hallmark of "al Qaeda in Iraq," which maintains a limited presence in Baghdad despite military setbacks and the Sunni revolt against the terror movement last year.
Violence is down significantly in Baghdad since the worst of the Sunni-Shiite fighting in 2006 and 2007.
In recent weeks, however, there appears to have been an uptick in small-scale bombings during the morning rush hour -- targeting Iraqi police and army patrols, government officials heading for work or commuters, in an attempt to undermine public confidence.
At least 24 people were killed Oct. 2 in suicide attacks against two Shiite mosques in Baghdad. A string of explosions Sept. 28 in mostly Shiite areas of Baghdad killed at least 32 people and wounded nearly 100.
The attacks show the determination of extremist groups to continue the fight against the U.S.-backed government and lie behind U.S. military concern about drawing down the 151,000-member U.S. military force too quickly.
A still unratified security agreement with the U.S. would keep American soldiers here until 2012.
President-elect Barack Obama has pledged to withdraw all combat troops within 16 months of taking office Jan. 20, although he has said he would consult with the Iraqi government and U.S. commanders before ordering any drawdown.
