BAGHDAD — A suicide bomber blew herself up Monday among police officers who were celebrating the release of a comrade from U.S. custody, killing at least 22 people, Iraqi officials said.
Separate bombings in Iraq killed 13 other people.
The suicide attack happened in Diyala. The female bomber targeted the home of a police commissioner who had previously been detained by American troops for allegedly cooperating with the Mahdi Army, a Shiite militia.
Maj. Gen. Abdul-Karim al-Rubaie, the military commander in Diyala, said most of the 22 fatalities were police and that 33 people were wounded in the evening attack.
The U.S. military confirmed that the bomber was a woman but gave a lower casualty toll, saying 17 Iraqis were killed, including the city’s deputy chief of police, and eight other people were wounded.
Al-Rubaie said police had gathered to celebrate Iftar, the meal that breaks the sunrise-to-sunset fast during the Islamic holy month of Ramadan.
The U.S. military said Monday that it had released 1,167 detainees in Iraq over the first two weeks of Ramadan.
It said there were about 18,900 in detention, down from a high of 26,000 in November 2007.
In Baghdad, a double car bombing struck a busy commercial district, killing 13 people in one of the deadliest attacks in the capital in weeks.
Also Monday, Iraq’s chief government spokesman said Iraq now needs less foreign aid and funds than in the past and dismissed criticism from some U.S. politicians that Iraq is not sharing enough of the burden of security and reconstruction.
Lawmakers in Washington have called for Baghdad to pay more for its own reconstruction, which has been heavily supported by American taxpayers.
