Car bombs kill three in northeast Iraq

BAQUBA, Iraq, Jan. 3 (UPI) -- A double bombing killed at least three people and wounded 20 Monday in Baquba, Iraq, police said.

A roadside bomb blew up outside the intelligence office for Diyala province, followed immediately by a suicide car bombing, a police source told Xinhua.

Among the injured were a high-ranking police officer, a policeman and eight schoolgirls who were in a bus passing by, the Kuwaiti news agency KUNA reported.

Medics in ambulances raced to the scene to evacuate the dead and aid the wounded as security forces sealed off the area.

Diyala, which extends from the eastern edges of Baghdad to the Iranian frontier, has been a stronghold for al-Qaida militants and other insurgents since the U.S.-led invasion in 2003.