The children's ages and other details of the attack were not immediately available. Diyala province, and especially the city of Baqouba, 60 kilometers northeast of Baghdad, has been torn by violence in recent weeks as al Qaida in Iraq and affiliated groups have battled Iraqi security forces, the US military and some local insurgent groups that have turned against al Qaida.
In other violence, unknown gunmen speeding by in the northern city of Kirkuk shot and killed a soldier, Adnan Mahmoud, as he drove with his 2-year-old daughter around 6:30 a.m. Friday. The child also was killed, said police Capt. Jassim Abdullah.
In Baghdad, US Army artillery fired at least nine rounds Friday morning into a Sunni Muslim-dominated farming area in the city's southwestern sections of Arab Jibor and Albu Aitha, police reported. A police officer, who asked anonymity as he was not authorized to talk to media, said the shelling targeted "selective areas" where Sunni militants were active.