BAGHDAD (AP) — Police say a car bomb has killed four Iraqis and wounded 21 more in a one-time insurgent stronghold northeast of Baghdad.
Police and hospital officials said the blast occurred Monday evening near a restaurant and coffee shop in Baqouba. They spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the media.
Baqouba is 35 miles (60 kilometers) northeast of Baghdad. It was once controlled by al-Qaida in Iraq before a series of U.S.-Iraqi offensives led to a drop in violence.
The attack came hours after another car bomb killed a British contractor in Mosul, about 225 miles (360 kilometers) north of Baghdad.
Violence has dropped sharply since the height of Iraq’s insurgency in 2007, but insurgents still wage attacks aimed at destabilizing Iraq’s government.
