36 dead as bomb blasts back in Iraq

Also yesterday, a female suicide bomber believed in her teens attacked a security checkpoint in downtown Baqouba, 35 miles (55 kilometers) northeast of Baghdad, killing five people including a local leader of Sunni group opposed to al-Qaeda, police said. Fifteen other people were wounded in that explosion.

The twin Baghdad blasts - the deadliest in the city in months - occurred moments apart during the morning rush hour in the mostly Shiite Kasrah section of the Azamiyah district in the northern part of the Iraqi capital.

Police said the first explosion in Iraqi capital damaged a minibus carrying young girls to school. The second happened when a suicide bomber detonated an explosive belt in the middle of a crowd that had gathered around the vehicle. Officials giving the toll were unclear how many died in each blast.

A message to Obama?
An Interior Ministry official speculated that extremists may have sought to "send a message" to President-elect Barack Obama about "the real situation in Iraq," pressure the government not to sign a new security agreement with the United States or embarrass the ruling parties ahead of regional elections in January. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he was offering speculation.

Violence is down significantly in Baghdad since the worst of the Sunni-Shiite fighting in 2006 and 2007. In recent weeks, however, there appears to have been an uptick in small-scale bombings during the morning rush hour - targeting Iraqi police and army patrols, government officials heading for work or commuters, in an attempt to undermine public confidence.

The attacks show the determination of extremist groups to continue the fight against the U.S.-backed government and lie behind U.S. military concern about drawing down the 151,000-member U.S. military force too quickly.