An Iraqi army officer and a civilian were killed in two bomb explosions in Baquba, the capital of Iraq's eastern province of Diyala, a provincial police source told Xinhua on Monday.
A sticky bomb attached to the car of Major Rabah Abbas, an Iraqi army officer, detonated while he was leaving his house in western Baquba, some 65 km northeast of Baghdad, the source said on condition of anonymity.
Also in the city, a sticky bomb attached to a minibus detonated and killed the driver in northwestern Baquba, the source said.
Diyala province, which stretches from the eastern edges of Baghdad to the Iranian border east of the country, has long been a stronghold for al-Qaida militants and other insurgent groups since the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq in 2003 despite repeated U.S. and Iraqi military operations against them.
Violence in the country underscores the challenges the Iraqi security forces are facing as they struggle to restore stability and normalcy in Iraqi cities about eight months before the departure of all American forces by the end of 2011.
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