A file photo of earlier blast in Baquba (AFP)

BAGHDAD, January 14 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) – At least two Iraqis were killed and around 29 others injured when a bomber blew his vehicle in the northern Baghdad town of Baquba on Wednesday, January 14, doctors and U.S. military said.

"A suicide bomber in a green civilian sedan targeted the quick reaction police force," First Lieutenant Brian Elliott of the U.S. 4th Infantry Division told Reuters at the scene, adding there were at least two deaths and a number of casualties.

"It could have been much worse if he had gotten the car inside the compound," he remarked.

Doctors at Baquba's main hospital said two people had died and more than 26 others were admitted with injuries sustained from the blast, which threw scores to the ground.

"The two dead were civilians and we have admitted 26 people for injuries, many of them police," said Mohammed Apiya Jibouri, a surgeon and deputy head of Baquba General Hospital.

A police officer at the scene said he saw the car racing toward the police station seconds before it exploded about 50 feet from the entrance of the compound.

He said police had fired on the vehicle but the driver didn't stop.

One policeman at the scene said it appeared the bomber had tied his foot to the accelerator to make sure the car would speed ahead even if he was killed.

"I was inside and I heard an explosion and went out and I saw a car with someone whose body was blown to bits," police Sergeant Raed Mehdi Zuhairi told Reuters.

"There was nothing left," he added.

Police said they had spoken to the driver moments before the attack and told him to get away from the area as it was a secure zone.

They argued that the man spoke with something other than an Iraqi accent.

U.S. officials blame loyalists to the former regime for most attacks on U.S.-led occupation troops and local security forces.

But observers and analysts say the attacks could be motivated by the U.S. military aggressions against ordinary Iraqis, including house-to-house searches mass detentions and a continued state of occupation of their oil-rich country.

Baquba, about 40 miles north of Baghdad, is a hotbed of anti-American sentiments and has grown increasingly restive in recent months.

U.S. forces carry out near daily raids in and around the town searching for resistance fighters, Reuters said.

As well as attacking U.S. troops in the area, resistance fighters have also targeted police and others seen by many to be collaborators with the foreign occupation.

Twin car bomb attacks on police stations in Baquba and the nearby town of Khan Bani Saad in November killed at least 16 people and wounded more than 30.

A bomb strapped to a bicycle exploded outside a mosque in Baquba after Friday prayers last week, killing at least six people.