BAQUBA, Iraq (AFP) - A woman suicide bomber targeted a US-backed militia office in the central Iraqi town of Baquba, killing one woman and wounding 16, police and hospital sources said Saturday.

The bomber detonated explosives strapped to her body in the office of the Sons of Iraq, a group of mostly Sunni former insurgents who switched sides and are now funded by the Americans, Iraqi police Captain Kassa al-Zaidi said.

A doctor at the local hospital, Ali Ismail, confirmed that one woman had been killed in addition to the suicide bomber and that 16 others had been wounded.

In another incident near Baquba, the capital of Diyala province, two people were killed and seven wounded in a shooting and a rocket attack, police said.

The violence in Baquba came as Iraqi security forces backed by US troops continued a major crackdown against Al-Qaeda in the northern Iraqi city of Mosul.

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