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Ahmad al-Rubaye / AFP / Getty Images)
Two bombs striking neighborhoods in Iraq's eastern Diyala province killed nearly 60 people Monday night, officials said, less than a month after it was the scene of one of the deadliest attacks to hit the country in recent years.
The deadlier of Monday's attacks happened near the provincial capital, Baquba, 35 miles northeast of Baghdad. Police said a suicide car bomb tore through a marketplace, killing 51 people and wounding at least 80.
The second attack took place in the village of Kanaan, where officials said a bomber blew himself up in a residential area, killing seven people and wounding 25.
Hospital officials corroborated the casualty figures. All spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to journalists.
Residents in Diyala have been calling for greater protection after the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) bombed a crowded marketplace last month, killing 115 people. The mostly Shia victims were gathered to mark the end of the Islamic holy month of Ramadan.
The government in Baghdad vowed to apprehend the culprits and better secure Diyala. But anger is rife in the volatile province, where a number of towns were captured by ISIL last year. Iraqi forces and Kurdish fighters since have retaken those areas, but clashes between ISIL and security forces continue.
The group, which claimed responsibility for the attacks, said in a statement circulated online by supporters that the target was "rejectionists," as the Sunni fighters refer to Shia Muslims.
ISIL has been behind several similar large-scale attacks on civilians and military checkpoints as it seeks to expand its territory. The group currently controls about a third of Iraq and Syria in a self-declared caliphate.
Wire services
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