A suicide bomber struck Monday in a crowd that had gathered where an explosion moments earlier damaged a bus full of schoolgirls, with both blasts killing at least 31 people and wounding 71 others, officials said. Also Monday, a woman suicide bomber attacked a security checkpoint in downtown Baqouba, 35 miles (55 kilometers) northeast of Baghdad, killing five people including a local leader of Sunni group opposed to Al-Qaeda, police said. Fifteen other people were wounded in that explosion. The twin Baghdad blasts – the deadliest in the city in months – occurred moments apart during the morning rush hour in the mostly Shiite Kasrah section of the Azamiyah district in the northern part of the Iraqi capital. Police said the first explosion damaged a minibus carrying young girls to school. The second happened when a suicide bomber detonated an explosive belt in the middle of a crowd that had gathered around the vehicle. Police officials giving the toll were unclear how many died in each blast. The Interior Ministry, which controls the police, gave the casualty figure of 31 dead and 71 wounded. A check of four hospitals in the Baghdad area provided the same count. The blasts shattered storefronts along the crowded street and set more than a dozen cars on fire. Abbas Fadhil, 45, said he was working in a nearby restaurant where the blasts went off.
