Baghdad, Aug 22 (IANS): At least 32 people were killed and 12 others wounded Friday in incidents of violence in Iraq's eastern province of Diyala, police sources said.

Five people were killed and 12 others injured, all of them Shias, when three roadside bombs exploded in Himreen area in northern Diyala, a police source told Xinhua.

Half an hour later, unidentified gunmen attacked a Sunni mosque during Friday prayers in the area of Bani Weis, about five km from Himreen, killing at least 27 worshippers.

It is not clear so far who carried out the attack on the mosque, the source said, adding that local police have arrived at the scene and launched an investigation.

The security situation began to drastically deteriorate in Iraq since June 10 when bloody clashes broke out between Iraqi security forces and hundreds of militants of the Islamic State (IS) Sunni extremist organisation.

The IS took control of the country's northern city of Mosul and later seized swathes of territories after the Iraqi security forces abandoned their posts in Nineveh and other predominantly Sunni provinces.