The New Nation - Internet Edition

AP, Baghdad

At least 37 people were killed in bomb blasts in Iraq. A suicide bomber blew herself up Monday among police officers who were celebrating the release of a comrade from U.S. custody, killing at least 22 people, Iraqi officials said. Separate bombings in Iraq killed 13 other people.

The suicide attack happened in Diyala, a province northeast of Baghdad where Sunni insurgents have carried out persistent attacks despite security gains elsewhere in the country. The female bomber targeted the home of a police commissioner who had been detained by American troops for allegedly cooperating with the Mahdi Army, a Shiite militia.

Maj. Gen. Abdul-Karim al-Rubaie, the military commander in Diyala, said most of the 22 fatalities were police and that 33 people were wounded in the evening attack in Balad Ruz, 45 miles northeast of Baghdad. Two police captains and three lieutenant colonels were among the dead, said a police officer who requested anonymity because he was not authorized to release the information.

The U.S. military confirmed that the bomber was a woman but gave a lower casualty toll, saying 17 Iraqis were killed, including the city's deputy chief of police, and eight other people were wounded.

Meanwhile, police say a bicycle laden with explosives exploded at a busy market north of Baghdad, killing two civilians and wounding 19. Some of the wounded are badly hurt. A police officer says the bicycle was left near an Iraqi military truck parked at the main market in Taji, a small town 12 miles north of Baghdad.

The officer says soldiers who arrived in the truck were patrolling the market on foot at a busy time Tuesday morning when the blast went off. The truck is badly damaged by the blast.