At least 32 people were killed in two explosions outside a Sunni Muslim mosque in Baquba, about 50 km (30 miles) northeast of Baghdad, after Friday prayers, police and medics said.
Attacks on Sunni and Shi’ite mosques, security forces and tribal leaders have spread since security forces raided a Sunni protest camp near Kirkuk a month ago, igniting clashes and fuelling fears of a slide back into all-out inter-communal war.
Iraq has grown more volatile as the civil war in neighboring Syria strains fragile relations between Sunni and Shi’ite Muslims. Tensions are now at their highest since the last U.S. troops pulled out at the end of 2011.