BAGHDAD (Reuters) - A suicide bomber dressed in police uniform killed four policemen near a local government headquarters in northeastern Iraq, police said.
Lieutenant Colonel Hameed al-Shimari, who heads an emergency police unit in Baquba, 65 km (40 miles) northeast of Baghdad, said that seven civilians were also wounded in the attack in the restive city of Baquba.
The U.S. military said that eight U.S. soldiers were wounded in the bombing near the Baquba mayor's office but none were killed, as Iraqi police had reported.
The military put the death toll at three civilians killed and 19 people, including the U.S. soldiers, reconstruction officials and Iraqi police, wounded.
The blast was followed by gunshots at and by U.S. soldiers, the U.S. statement said.
While violence has fallen sharply across most of Iraq, ethnically mixed Diyala province has remained one of most volatile areas of the country.
Suicide bombings have occurred frequently in Baquba, considered one of the few remaining havens in Iraq for Sunni Islamist al Qaeda fighters.
(Editing by Tim Pearce)
