BAGHDAD — A car bomb outside a Shi’ite mosque in a village north of Baghdad killed 15 people yesterday, the third deadly attack in the region in as many days, and a US soldier was killed in a separate bombing in the same province, Iraqi officials and the US military said.
The blast in a shopping area in the village of Abu Sayda also left 21 wounded, Ghalib al-Karkhi, a police spokesman in Diyala Province, said. Diyala was once an insurgent stronghold, and the three consecutive days of violence there underscores the fragile nature of Iraq’s security as insurgents persist in trying to reignite sectarian bloodshed.
A hospital official speaking on the condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the media confirmed the casualty figures.
The US soldier, who was not identified pending notification of next of kin, was killed by a roadside bomb that struck his vehicle as he was traveling through Diyala, the US military said in a statement.
The car bombing was the third attack in and around about 35 miles north of Baghdad, since Monday. On Tuesday, a car bomb near a roadside restaurant north of killed one person. A day earlier, a car bomb exploded near a Baqubah restaurant, killing six people.
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