BAQUBA, Iraq, March 18 (Xinhua) -- A car bomb struck an Iraqi police checkpoint in a town in Iraq's eastern province of Diyala on Monday, killing seven people and wounding 22, a provincial police source told Xinhua.
The attack occurred in the afternoon when a booby-trapped car parked near a police checkpoint at a parking lot in the town of Baladruz east of the provincial capital city of Baquba, some 65 km northeast of Baghdad, the source told Xinhua on condition of anonymity.
"Five policemen and two civilians were killed, while 17 civilians and five policemen were wounded by the blast," the source said.
The huge blast damaged a police vehicle and several nearby civilian cars, the source added.
Earlier in the day, the police reportedly said that four people were killed, including a police officer, and seven people wounded in three bomb attacks near Baghdad.
Violence is still common in the Iraqi cities despite the dramatic decrease since its peak in 2006 and 2007 when the country was engulfed in sectarian killings.
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