(AFP) - Insurgents killed at least 22 people in Iraq on Tuesday in a series of bomb attacks, including a suicide attack that killed 16 people in a cafe near the restive city of Baquba , police and medics said.
A suicide bomber blew himself up inside a cafe in the town of Al- Abbara , in the province of Diyala , killing 16 people and wounding 24, police Lieutenant Colonel Najim al- Sumadaie from Baquba told AFP.
Doctor Firaz al- Azzawi of Baquba hospital confirmed the toll.
In another incident, a bomber exploded his explosives-laden car at a police checkpoint in central Baquba , north of Baghdad, killing two people and wounding 15, a police officer said.
The dead included a policeman and three of the wounded were children, he added.
Four people were killed and seven others were wounded when a car bomb exploded in central Baghdad, security officials said.
The dead included a woman and a policeman, a security official said, adding that the parked car bomb exploded in Al- Nidhal street as a police patrol passed by.
Medics at Baghdad's Al- Kindi and Ibn al- Nafis hospitals confirmed the attack.
The latest attacks came as US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice made a surprise visit to Iraq on Tuesday.
She landed in the northern oil city of Kirkuk and later flew to Baghdad where she met top Iraqi leaders and urged them to boost national reconciliation.