At least 87 dead, 125 wounded in two Iraq suicide bombings (Roundup)

Apr 23, 2009, 16:24 GMT

Baghdad - Two suicide bombers killed at least 87 people in separate attacks in Iraq on Thursday, police said.

A man killed 33 people and himself when he detonated explosives strapped to his body in a crowd queuing up for humanitarian aid in central Baghdad. At least 57 people were wounded in that attack, police told the German Press Agency dpa.

Later on Thursday, a man walked into a restaurant full of Iranian pilgrims, near Khanaqin, in the violence-prone Iraqi province of Diyala, and blew himself up. Police said 52 people and the bomber were killed in that attack, and that 68 others were wounded.

It was unclear who was responsible for the planning of the two bombings, but Tariq al-Hashemi, the leader of the Sunni Iraqi Islamic Party, said that security forces had arrested Abu Omar al-Baghdadi, the 'emir' of a group known as the Islamic State in Iraq.

The Islamic State in Iraq is an umbrella group encompassing several Sunni insurgent groups, including al-Qaeda in Iraq.

However, in March and May 2007, respectively, Iraqi police said that al-Baghdadi had been arrested and killed.

In July 2007, US Brigadier-General Kevin Bergner told reporters that the US military believed al-Baghdadi was a myth created 'to put an Iraqi face on the leadership of al-Qaeda in Iraq.'

Reports of al-Baghdadi's arrest came soon after police near Falluja, a stronghold of Sunni insurgents 60 kilometres west of Baghdad, said they had arrested eight men on suspicion of being members of al-Qaeda in Iraq.

Lieutenant-Colonel Ahmed Jamili told