BAQUBA, Iraq (Reuters) - A suicide bomber driving an ambulance killed up to 12 people and wounded more than 50 in an attack on Wednesday on an Iraqi police training centre in volatile Diyala province, a spokeswoman for the governor said.
"There are more bodies buried in the ruins," the provincial governor's spokeswoman, Samira al-Shibli, told Reuters.
Police sources in the city of Baquba, 65 km (40 miles) northeast of Baghdad, put the death toll between eight and 10, with up to 64 wounded.
One police source said there were two attackers. One of them shot dead three security guards at the gates of the training centre, opening the way for a second assailant to drive the ambulance in.
The blast caused part of a building to collapse, a policeman at the site told Reuters.
"I can see hands and legs of dead policemen sticking out from under the rubble," the policeman said.
Wednesday's attack was the second by a suicide bomber in two days on Iraqi security forces. At least 49 people were killed in former dictator Saddam Hussein's hometown of Tikrit on Tuesday when a suicide bomber attacked a line of police recruits.
That was the bloodiest attack in Iraq since Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki won support in December for his reappointment, ending a nine-month stalemate that followed a March election.
Insurgents have stepped up their assaults on Iraqi police and troops since U.S. forces formally ended combat operations last August ahead of a full withdrawal this year.
In a separate incident on Wednesday, a suicide bomber killed two Shi'ite pilgrims and wounded 15, on a road between Baquba and Baghdad, two police sources said.
Attacks against Shi'ites are expected to rise ahead of the religious event of Arbain, which culminates next week. Arbain marks a 40-day mourning period for Imam Hussein, a grandson of the Prophet Mohammad who was killed at the battle of Kerbala in the 7th century and who is a central figure of Shi'ite Islam.
(Reporting by Baghdad Newsroom; Writing by Rania El Gamal; Editing by Louise Ireland and Michael Christie)
