Bombs kill 25 at local Iraqi governor's house

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BAGHDAD: At least 25 people were killed on Tuesday when bombs exploded at a checkpoint outside a provincial governor's house in central Iraq, the latest attack targeting a government building, local authorities said.

One suicide bomber blew himself up and at least one car bomb exploded outside the Diwaniya governor's house, 150 km (95miles) south of Baghdad, as guards changed shifts at the checkpoint. Most of the victims were bodyguards, officials said.

"The initial death toll is 25 killed at a guard's checkpoint," Fadhel Mawat, a spokesman for the provincial council said. Kareem Isghair, the head of the security committee of Diwaniya Provincial Council, said explosions targeted security personal as they were checking in for morning duty.

A source at a hospital in Diwaniya said at least 25 people had been killed and more than 30 wounded in the attack. Violence has increasingly targeted local security forces and provincial government officials as U.S. troops prepare to withdraw from the country by a planned year-end deadline more than eight years after the invasion to oust Saddam Hussein.

Diwaniya is a poor, mainly Shi'ite region and several of Iraq's armed groups are active in the area.