The New Nation - Internet Edition

AFP, Baquba

At least 25 people were killed in suicide car bomb explosions in Iraq.

A suicide car bomb exploded at a police checkpoint in Iraq's volatile Diyala province Sunday, killing at least 15 people, including seven policemen, a security official said.

Police Major Hassan al-Kurawi said another 20 people were wounded in the attack, which took place east of the provincial capital Baquba hours after Iraq's cabinet approved a wide-ranging military pact that would have all US troops withdraw by the end of 2011.

Firas al-Dulaimi, a doctor at Baquba General Hospital said his hospital was still receiving victims but declined to give a specific number of casualties.

Meanwhile, at least 10 people were killed and scores more injured in a series of bomb attacks across Iraq on Saturday, Iraqi police said.

A car bomb in the northern Iraqi town of Tal Afar killed seven people and wounded more than three dozen when it exploded near an auto dealership, police said.

However, a US military spokesman issued a statement putting the toll at 10 and saying another 20 were wounded in the bombing which took place near a car market and targeted civilians.

The town is half way between the Syrian border and the city of Mosul, which the US military considers to be the last remaining urban bastion of Al-Qaeda in Iraq.

Iraq has seen dramatic improvements in security over the past year as US and Iraqi forces have teamed up with local Sunni tribes to drive out insurgents and militias, but attacks are still common in some parts of the country.

In Baghdad, another three people were killed and 23 wounded when a car bomb exploded near the National Theatre, police said.

Another 10 people were wounded, including seven civilians, in two other bomb attacks, police said. One targeted a police patrol and another set alight a mostly-empty oil tanker.