Suicide attacks kill at least 54 in Iraq: reports

At least54 people were killed and dozens wounded in two separate suicide attacks on Thursday in Iraq, media reports quoted Iraqi police officials as saying.

The deadly attacks came just hours after Iraqi security officials claimedAbu Omar al-Baghdadi,the purported leader of an-al Qaeda-linked Sunni umbrella group, was captured Thursdayin anIraqi military raid.

Little is known about Al-Baghdadi, whois credited with organizing theSunni insurgent campaignover the past two years.

The first attack occurred in the centralBaghdadneighbourhood ofKarradah as police were handing out supplies topeople drivenfrom their homes by sectarian violence. At least 22 people were reportedly killed, including women and children.

Issam Salim, 35, was wounded by shrapnel as he was waiting for a bus about 30 metres from the explosion.

"I turned around as I fell to the ground and saw a big fire break out with black smoke," he said from his hospital bed.

"Women and children are crying from pain beside me in the hospital. Some of them suffered burns."

An unnamed official at the Interior Ministrytold The Associated Press that52others werewounded.

Restaurant bombing

Another suicide bombing followedat a restaurant in Baqouba, 55 kilometres northeast of Baghdad. An Iraqiprovincial council officialsaid32 people, most of them Iranian Shia pilgrims, were killed and another 60 wounded.

The U.S. military put the initial death toll from the second attack at 20.

Two other suicide bombings were reported inDuleyia, near Tikrit, and in Mosul, but there were no immediate reports of casualties.

Violence in Iraq has dropped significantly in the last year, but militants have continued to target police and pilgrims in bombing attacks in recent months.

U.S. President Barack Obama haspromisedthe"responsible" removal of all U.S. combat forces from Iraq by the end of August 2010, but warned in February the country may face "difficult days ahead."