TIKRIT, Iraq (AFP) — Two suicide bombs killed 29 people in Iraq on Tuesday, including 25 who died when a bomber slammed his vehicle into a truck carrying gas cylinders at a checkpoint in the northern oil town of Baiji.
The two attacks appeared to be directed against groups fighting Al-Qaeda militants in Iraq.
The truck bombing occurred on the outskirts of the oil refinery town of Baiji, 200 kilometres (120 miles) north of Baghdad, Iraqi and US military officials said.
A security official from a joint US-Iraqi security coordination centre in Tikrit said the bomber drove his pick-up vehicle into the truck, which was full of cooking gas cylinders, at the checkpoint manned by Iraqi soldiers and members of a militia group fighting Al-Qaeda.
About 85 people were also wounded, he said.
The US military in a separate statement said two bombers were inside the blue truck used to carry out the attack in Baiji.
"The enemy is making last-ditch efforts to derail and discredit the local Iraqi security forces by targeting innocent citizens of Baiji," said Lieutenant Colonel Peter Wilhelm, the US military commander in Baiji.
"As the enemy continues to feel increasing pressure from all sides, to include a more viable Iraqi security force, this senseless attack today just demonstrates the enemy's desperation as Iraq and its citizens are making significant strides for peace."
Baiji police chief Lieutenant Colonel Saleh al-Qaisi was sacked by the interior ministry immediately after the attack, state-television Al-Iraqiya said, quoting the ministry's director of operations Brigadier General Abdel Karim Khalaf.
The police imposed a curfew in Baiji after the attack which was close to the oil refinery from where fuel products are distributed across Iraq.
Shortly after the Baiji bombing, a suicide bomber blew himself up in the midst of a funeral procession in the city of Baquba, north of Baghdad, killing at least four members of a similar militia group fighting Al-Qaeda, police and medics said.
The US military said 10 Iraqis were killed and five wounded.
An AFP correspondent on the scene reported that among those killed was Haj Farhan al-Baharzawi, the provincial head of the Brigades of 1920 Revolution, a former Sunni insurgent group turned ally of the US military.
Baquba police Lieutenant Colonel Najim al-Sumaidaie said the funeral procession was marking the death of two members of the Brigades of 1920 Revolution who were killed on Monday by the US military.
"The two were killed by mistake and the funeral was being held today when the suicide bomber attacked," Sumaidaie said.
The latest bombings highlighted the Al-Qaeda fightback against US-sponsored anti-Qaeda militias sprouting up across Iraq.
With US help, around 80,000 Sunni Arabs -- former rebels who fought the US military alongside Al-Qaeda -- have now turned on the Islamist group in several volatile Sunni regions of Iraq.
Al-Qaeda in Iraq has vowed to launch attacks against such "Awakening" groups in a bid to draw them back into the anti-American insurgency.
The US military pays around 300 dollars to each member of the so-called Awakening councils, cited by Washington as a key factor in reducing violence across Iraq in the past few months.
Insurgents have also stepped up attacks in northern Iraq after being pushed out of western and central regions following a series of military assaults.
US and Iraqi forces are currently involved in a massive military sweep in the northern provinces of Salaheddin -- which includes Baiji -- Nineveh and Kirkuk.
In a separate statement the US military said its troops killed 13 suspected militants and detained dozens more in raids over the past 24 hours in central and northern Iraq.
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