Suicide truck bomb attack kills nine in Iraq

Nine people were killed and 13 others wounded in a suicide truck bomb attack at a village in Iraq's eastern province of Diyala Thursday afternoon, a provincial police source said.

A suicide bomber blew up his explosives-laden truck at the mixed Shia and Sunni village of Sfiftah, just east of the provincial capital city of Baquba, some 65 km northeast of Baghdad, the source told Xinhua on condition of anonymity.

A policeman was among those killed and four others are among the wounded, the source said, adding that the huge blast also destroyed several nearby buildings, shops and civilian cars.

Violence and sectarian tensions have been running high recently between Sunni and Shia communities in the volatile province of Diyala, as both sides accuse each other of supporting extremists and militiamen.

Diyala province, which stretches from the eastern edges of Baghdad to the Iranian border in the east of the country, has long been a volatile area since the US-led invasion of Iraq in 2003, despite repeated military operations against the militant groups.