At least 25 people were killed while several others injured in a roadside and suicide blasts respectively in Afghanistan and Iraq on Wednesday. Some 13 people have died after a motorcycle rickshaw packed with civilian passengers struck a roadside bomb in eastern Afghanistan. The explosion happened in the Khoshamad district of eastern Paktika province, the interior ministry said, adding that women and children were among the dead. Meanwhile, a suicide bomber rammed an ambulance into a police compound in central Iraq, killing some 12 people. Many more were wounded in the attack in Baquba - the second targeting Iraq's security forces in two days. On Tuesday, a suicide bomber killed some 60 people at a police recruitment centre in Tikrit, the hometown of former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein. Violence in Iraq has ebbed in recent years, but deadly attacks persist. Both Baquba - 65km (40 miles) north-east of Baghdad - and Tikrit are within what is known as the Sunni Triangle, a stronghold of Iraq's insurgency. A gunman stepped out of the ambulance, opened fire on guards at the entrance of the city's special security police centre, and then the vehicle was driven into the compound and detonated, reports said.
