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Nine killed in Iraq attacks

02 December 2011 20:27 (UTC +04:00)

Baku-APA. Bomb and gun attacks in Iraq killed nine people, including four anti-Qaeda militiamen, and wounded 30 others, security officials said on Friday, APA reports quoting AFP.

"Four people were killed and seven wounded in two attacks by roadside bombs in the Taji area," just north of Baghdad, an interior ministry official said.

The first attack targeted the home of Nadhem Karim Mohammed, a leader of anti-Qaeda Sahwa militia forces in Taji, killing him and his mother, the official said.

When police arrived at the scene, another bomb went off, killing two police and wounding seven others.

Three roadside bombs exploded in the disputed northern city of Kirkuk, killing a woman and wounding 15 other people, said Major General Turhan Abdul Rahman, deputy director general of Kirkuk police.

A roadside bomb killed a policeman and wounded six people, including three police, about 75 kilometres (45 miles) south of Kirkuk, police Lieutenant Colonel Khaled al-Bayati said.

Unknown gunmen attacked a Sahwa checkpoint in the Al-Sharqat area, 120 kilometres (75 miles) northeast of Tikrit, killing three Sahwa members and wounding two others, a police major said.

A security source also said that police had freed Ibrahim Zaki Khalaf al-Ajili, the teenage son of a prominent contractor in Tikrit, who was kidnapped on Thursday.

Ajili was freed about 110 kilometres (70 miles) south of Kirkuk, the source said, adding that two suspected kidnappers believed to belong to the Ansar al-Sunna insurgent group were detained.

Violence has declined in Iraq since its peak in 2006 and 2007, but attacks remain common. A total of 187 people were killed in November, according to official figures released on Thursday.