Twenty-nine villagers were killed by men wearing Iraqi military uniforms who stormed their homes north of Baghdad, an Iraqi security official said today.
The spokesman in Diyala province said a large number of gunmen surrounded Duwailiya village, north of the city of Baquba, yesterday afternoon and then opened fire.
The scene of the car bomb near Baghdad
There were four people wounded in the attack, which he blamed on militants fleeing US and Iraqi security forces who last month began a major in Baquba, the capital of the religiously mixed Diyala province.
Thousands of troops swept into Baquba in a bid to drive out an estimated several hundred al-Qaeda militants who had turned the city into a stronghold.
Elsewhere, four people were killed today by a car bomb parked near the Iranian embassy in Baghdad. Police said five were wounded in the attack.
The Iranian embassy is near to, but not inside, the Green Zone, which is home to the Iraqi government and parliament and the US and British embassies.