BAGHDAD -- The death toll rose to 35 in double suicide blasts which struck a wedding convoy Thursday evening in northeast of Baghdad, and 76 others were wounded, police said.
The two suicide bombers, one of them a female, blew themselves off as a wedding convoy passed by a main street in the town of Balad Ruz, 30 km east of Baquba, the capital city of the restive Diyala province.
Police said the first female bomber blew herself up in front of the wedding convoy, and the second bomber went off as people nearby gathered to help the wounded.
Diyala province, which stretches from northeastern edges of Baghdad to the Iranian border, has long been the stronghold of al-Qaida militant groups and hotbed of insurgency and sectarian violence since the US-led invasion broke out in 2003.
