Iraqi authorities imposed a curfew on the capital of Diyala province on Tuesday after the governor survived a suicide attack that left the bomber's body parts scattered across the street. Two people were killed and seven wounded when the attacker detonated an explosive vest near the convoy carrying Diyala Governor Raad Rasheed in the provincial capital Baquba, 65 km (40 miles) north-east of Baghdad.
Rasheed was unharmed. Diyala has been the scene of a two-week-old crackdown by US-backed Iraqi forces against Sunni Arab al Qaeda and other militants, who frequently employ suicide bombing as a tactic. As violence in Iraq has dropped to levels not seen since 2004, the ethnically and religiously mixed province is considered one of the last remaining sanctuaries for al Qaeda.
Iraqiya state television said the curfew in the city centre would run from noon (0900 GMT) until Wednesday morning. The explosion near the provincial government headquarters scattered the bomber's body parts across the street, while a man lay lifeless by the roadside, a Reuters photographer who was in Baquba at the time of the blast reported. An American bomb-disposal robot probed the area after the attack, while Iraqi and US soldiers tended to wounded Iraqis before they were taken to a hospital.
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