Bombs kill 11 people in Iraq: police

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Two bomb blasts killed 11 people in Iraq Thursday, reflecting the ongoing insurgent activity that defies overall security improvements and sows fears among some Iraqis about a return to bloodshed of the past.

The first bomb exploded inside a local political party office in the northeastern city of Baquba, killing seven people and wounding 8, said Lieutenant Colonel Abdul Hameed al-Shimari, the head of an emergency police unit in restive Diyala province.

Ethnically and religiously mixed Diyala, home to Arabs, Kurds and Turkmen and Sunni and Shi'ite Muslims, is one of the last focal points of a stubborn Sunni Arab insurgency and other armed groups.

Hours later, a suicide bomber drove a car packed with explosives into a police station in Qaim, near the Syrian border in western Iraq, killing four people and wounding seven.

Western Iraq was once the heartland of al Qaeda activity, until tribal sheikhs rose up against al Qaeda and joined forces with U.S. troops in 2007. Still, sporadic violence continues.

U.S. combat forces pulled out of Iraqi cities at the end of last month, leading some Iraqis to doubt whether their own forces are capable of handling security by themselves.

(Reporting by Muhanad Mohammed; Writing by Tim Cocks; Editing by Matthew Jones)