At least 40 people were killed and 100 others wounded in two car bombings in Iraq's eastern province of Diyala on Monday, security officials said. The first attack took place in Huwaider village near provincial capital Baquba, 45 miles north of Baghdad, when a suicide bomber blew himself up at a crowded marketplace killing at least 35 people and wounding 72 others, according to Associated Press.
"A suicide bomber driving a booby-trapped vehicle blew himself up in the middle of the central market area in Huwaydir," a police lieutenant-colonel told AFP.
"Women and children were among the deaths, while some 20 wounded people are in critical conditions," a security source told Xinhua.
The second attack took place in the Kanaan district, located east of Baquba, when a suicide bomber blew himself up in a residential locality and killed seven residents.
The Islamic State jihadist group, also referred as ISIS, ISIL and Daesh in Arabic, has claimed responsibility for both attacks, according to Reuters.
The volatile Diyala province has been witnessing violent clashes between Iraqi forces and Islamic State militants. An ISIS car bomb attack at a popular marketplace south of Baquba had killed more than 100 people last month.
Iraqi forces and Kurdish fighters have retaken several towns, which were captured by ISIS last year, but the militants remained active in some areas of the province, according to Al Jazeera America.
The ISIS extremist group controls northern Iraqi city of Mosul and has been ruling in parts of Iraq and Syria under a self-declared Caliphate.
