35 dead in Iraq attacks

BAIJI, Iraq, Dec. 25 (UPI) -- Iraqi police say at least 35 people were killed and dozens more were injured in a pair of suicide bomber attacks Tuesday in Iraqi towns north of Baghdad.

ABC News reported 25 of the victims, including four children, died when a suicide attacker detonated truck loaded with explosives at a checkpoint in the city of Baiji. More than 80 people were injured in the attack, which occurred after police and volunteer fighters refused to let the truck through the checkpoint, ABC reported.

In the second blast, a suicide bomber with an explosive belt ignited an explosion in the midst of a funeral procession for a leader of the 20th Revolution Brigades, which recently joined the Awakening Council, in Baquba, KUNA, the Kuwait news agency, reported. Ten Iraqis were killed, ABC reported, and 15 others were injured in the attack.

The attack occurred just hours after the US military announced it had killed 13 suspected insurgents and detained another 27 fighters in operations in the country's north.

Meanwhile, police in Diyala said gunmen abducted 13 Iraqi civilians from a minibus Monday on a road north of Baquba, The Washington Post reported. Maj. Gen. Abdul Kareem al-Rubaie, a police officer in Diyala province, said the passengers were Shiite civilians traveling from the town of Khalis to Baquba.