Six people have been killed in two powerful bombings in Diyala in central Iraq, an area which Iraqi commanders have described as the country's most dangerous province.
One of the attacks was carried out by a female suicide bomber, who killed an Iraqi police officer and injured 17 other people when she blew herself up at a market in the provincial capital Baquba.
Officials said the woman activated the explosives at the entrance to a police post inside the market when a police officer wanted to search her.
Hospital sources said the policeman was killed while another 12 policemen and five civilians were injured.
Earlier, five Iraqi women were killed and three men were injured when a roadside bomb exploded next to their pick-up truck near Al-Wajihiyah, about 20km east of Baquba, a witness said.
'We left this morning and four women were going to the doctor and one was going shopping in Al-Wajhiyah. Before we reached Al-Wajhiyah the bomb exploded,' said 27-year-old passenger Shaalan Mutni Ahmed.
Diyala province, and especially its capital Baquba has in recent months been the scene of intense violence, especially suicide bombings - many of them carried out by women.
On 29 July, some 50,000 Iraqi soldiers and police launched a major push against insurgents and Al-Qaeda jihadists in Diyala.
A mixed region made up of Christians and Muslims, Diyala was once the granary of Iraq and the country's orange capital with its lush orchards. It is fed by the Euphrates and Diyala rivers.
