Baghdad, Dec 1 (IANS): Up to 11 people were killed and nine others wounded as unknown gunmen attacked a civilian car in Iraq's eastern province of Diyala, a security official said.

The car was hit by a roadside bomb and came under heavy gunfire by unknown gunmen in a village near the town of Wajihiya, nearly 90 km northeast of the Iraqi capital Baghdad, Alaa al-Saadi of the Diyala provincial command told Xinhua news agency on Thursday.

Al-Saadi added that the double attacks on the car led to the death of 11 people and the injury of nine others, five of whom are in critical condition, Xinhua news agency reported.

The ethnically mixed province of Diyala has suffered from unrest and sporadic violence among its Kurdish, Sunni, and Shia communities in the years following 2003.

Some remnants of the militant group Islamic State (IS), who have regrouped in the rugged areas in the eastern part of Diyala and the Himreen mountainous area north of the province, have been carrying out attacks against civilians and Iraqi forces from time to time.