Two suicide bombers killed 22 people and wound 57 others in an attack Tuesday at an army recruitment station in Diyala province, officials said.

Medical workers said the two attackers detonated their explosive vests about two minutes apart in the attack at the Saad military barracks in Baquba, capital of the province.

Diyala, north-east of the capital Baghdad, is known as a stronghold of the terror organisation al-Qaeda.

The attacks came while dozens of recruits were gathering at Saad barracks to apply to join the Iraqi Army.

Diyala was the site where last weekend the first female unit of the Iraqi civil defence forces was established. The task of the 70 'sisters of Iraq' - who are unarmed and clothed in Islamic garments - is to try to discover female would-be suicide attackers.

In the past, the so-called 'al-Qaeda widows' have carried out attacks, including one in Baquba on June 22 in which 17 people were killed.

Also on Tuesday, a policeman was killed by a car bomb in the northern city of Mosul, while two women were shot dead in the city by unknown attackers, police officials said.

A police spokesman said that two high-ranking army officers were abducted Monday evening in northern Iraq.

Lieutenant Colonel Saleh Sobhi Hamad and Captain Ahmed al-Fahel were not wearing uniforms at the time of the abduction, but were dressed in traditional Arab clothing.

The son of a local militia was killed near the city of Musayib to the south of Baghdad while he was driving one of his father's vehicles, Aswat al-Iraq news agency reported.

Another son was injured in the attack.