Suicide car bomb kills 10 in Iraq's Baquba

A suicide car bomb blast at a police checkpoint in the Iraqi city of Baquba Thursday killed at least 10 people and wounded 11, security and medical sources said.

"At least 10 people, including seven policemen, were killed when a suicide attacker rammed his car bomb into a police checkpoint at an entrance of the Shifta neighbourhood," an army officer said.

Shifta is a central district of Baquba, a city which lies around 60 kilometres northeast of the capital Baghdad.

The army officer said the attack occurred at around 4:00 pm (1300 GMT) and also wounded 11 people, including seven policemen.

A senior local police official and a doctor at Baquba general hospital both confirmed the casualty figures.

Baquba is the capital of the restive and religiously mixed province of Diyala, where Kurdish peshmerga, federal forces and allied militia have been battling the Islamic State jihadist group.