Twin Blasts Northeast of Baghdad Kill 9 Iraqis

Twin explosions ripped through a crowded cafe northeast of Baghdad, killing nine people and wounding 21, Iraqi officials said Friday.

The attack late Thursday in the village of Garma, near the city of Baqouba in Diyala province, came a week after a series of blasts killed dozens in the capital and across the country.

An interior ministry official and a local police officer said a suicide car bomber set off the first explosion outside the packed cafe. A few minutes later, another bomb went off inside the cafe, they said.

Iraqis often go out on Thursday evenings, which mark the start of the Muslim weekend that falls on Friday-Saturday, flocking to cafes, restaurants and parks.

A medic at the Baqouba general hospital confirmed the toll. Baqouba, the provincial capital of Diyala, is 60 kilometers (35 miles) northeast of Baghdad.

Also Friday, a Sunni mother and her three children were shot dead in an apparent sectarian attack in a village in central Iraq.

"Unknown gunmen broke into a house in the village of Abu Garma and killed a 45-year-old woman and her three children," who were between 10 and 15 years old, Lieutenant Colonel Ahmed al-Karkhi said.

The attack with silenced weapons probably occurred between 3:00 and 4:00 am (0000 and 0100 GMT), he said, adding the bodies were found about 9:00 am (0600 GMT) by a family member.

Although the level of violence in Iraq is nowhere near where it was five years ago, when the country almost descended into civil war, deadly attacks are still common.