Three people were killed and 21 others wounded in two mortar barrages on Tuesday near Baquba, some 65 km northeast of Baghdad, local police said.

"Several mortar rounds landed on the town of Bani Sa'ad near Baquba, killing a civilian and wounded 14 others," the media office of the provincial police said in a statement.

Separately, a mortar barrage hit another village near Baquba, killing two civilians and wounding seven others, the statement added.

Baquba is the provincial capital of Iraq's Diyala province within Iraq's so-called Sunni Triangle, a bastion of sectarian violence and insurgency against the U.S.-led occupation.

Source: Xinhua