From the Baltimore Sun, Dec. 26:

BAGHDAD - Two suicide bombings killed at least 24 people and injured as many as 100 others north of Baghdad yesterday, the latest attacks to take aim at Iraqi security forces and local volunteers credited with helping to bring about a major drop in violence in former insurgent strongholds.

The attacks in Baiji and Baqouba shattered a period of relative calm as Muslims marked the four-day Eid al-Adha festival, which ended Monday for Shiites and Saturday for Sunnis.

For the first time, the government extended the holiday until yesterday, when the country's tiny Christian minority celebrated Christmas...

In yesterday's worse attack, a suicide bomber blew up a truck at a checkpoint in Baiji, site of a major oil refinery 125 miles north of the capital.

Police and hospital officials said at least 25 people were killed and 75 injured. The U.S. military put the toll at 20 dead and 80 injured.

The blast, on a road leading to an oil industry housing complex, ignited cooking gas that was being sold nearby, police said. A series of secondary explosions collapsed walls, shattered windows and scattered burning canister pieces for hundreds of yards.

Iraqi security force members and local volunteers who were manning the checkpoint were among the dead. But most of the victims were civilians, including women and children who had gathered to buy the fuel, hospital officials said.

"What kind of Islam is this?" asked Ali Arkan, who was asleep in his bed when a large piece of glass from the explosion smashed into his shoulder. "Surely this is not the Islam that we know. These days we are living are very holy days for Muslims and Christians. ... Those people have no respect and no relationship with either Christianity or Islam."

[...]

In Baqouba, 35 miles northeast of Baghdad, police said a suicide bomber detonated explosives strapped to his waist during a funeral procession for a member of the volunteer force and his adult son. At least four people were killed and 21 injured, they said.

Police and two members of the volunteer force, known locally as the Awakening, said U.S. troops had mistaken the father and son for Sunni Muslim militants and shot them the previous night.

The U.S. military said that it had killed two "unknown enemy," one of whom turned out to be a member of the Awakening group, which it has dubbed "concerned local citizens."

Four other people were detained during the raid, the military said in a statement.