A car bomb killed 13 people at a vehicle trade fair in the deadliest of a string of attacks on Thursday in which 16 died, including a university professor hanged in his home. Among those killed were a journalist, the professor and a Sunni Muslim imam, while 35 other people were wounded, security officials said.
In the worst violence, a vehicle packed with explosives was detonated in the middle of a car sales fair in the town of Muqdadiyah, north-east of Baghdad in restive Diyala province. Iraqi army Major Abbas al-Tamim put the casualty toll at 13 dead and 35 wounded.
Muqdadiyah is a mostly Shia Muslim town with a substantial Sunni population. While violence has declined nation-wide since its peak in 2006 and 2007, Diyala remains one of Iraq's least secure regions. In the northern city of Mosul, an Iraqi journalist was gunned down outside his home and a Sunni imam was killed inside his house, local police said.