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13 people killed, 47 wounded in attacks in Iraq

28 June 2012 19:15 (UTC +04:00)

Baku-APA. A total of 13 people were killed and 47 others wounded in separate gunfire and bomb attacks in Iraq on Thursday, the police said, APA reports quoting Xinhua.

The deadliest attacks occurred in the morning when two car bombs almost simultaneously ripped through Shatie al-Taji area, just north of Baghdad, killing two people and wounding 15 others, an Interior Ministry source told Xinhua on condition of anonymity.

In Baghdad, a third car bomb detonated in Washash neighborhood in western the Iraqi capital, killing a civilian and wounding seven others, the source said.

In Iraq’s eastern province of Diyala, three people were killed and three others wounded in a bomb explosion at a marketplace in al-Gatoun area, just west of the provincial capital city of Baquba, some 65 km northeast of Baghdad, a provincial police source anonymously told Xinhua.

Also in the province, a roadside bomb went off near a minibus in the town of Bani Saad, some 20 km south of Baquba, wounding four passengers, including a woman, the source said.

Moreover, a suicide bomber blew up his explosive-laden car at around midday at the entrance of the provincial government compound in the city of Ramadi, capital of Iraq’s western province of Anbar, killing two policemen and wounding two others along with five civilians, the source from the provincial operations command told Xinhua on condition of anonymity.

Insurgent attacks continue in the once volatile Sunni Arab area in west of Baghdad that stretches through Anbar province to Iraq’s western borders with Syria, Jordan and Saudi Arabia.

In a separate incident, a policeman was killed and four others wounded when a booby-trapped car detonated in the southern city of Fallujah, some 50 km west of Baghdad, a local police source said.

Meanwhile, a roadside bomb struck a police patrol in Haswa area, just east of Fallujah, and destroyed a police vehicle, killing a policeman and wounding another aboard, the source said.

Also in Fallujah, gunmen in their car opened fire on an off- duty policeman in front of his house in southern the city, killing him and wounding three of his family members, the source added.

In Iraq’s northern central province of Salahudin, gunmen attacked a checkpoint manned by government-backed Awakening Council group members in the city of Samarra, some 110 km north of the capital, killing two group members before they fled the scene, a local police source told Xinhua.

The Awakening Council group, also known as Sons of Iraq movement or Sahwa, consists of mostly anti-U.S. Sunni insurgent militant groups, who turned their rifles to fight al-Qaida network after Sahwa’s leaders became dismayed by al-Qaida’s brutality and religious zealotry in the country.

Also in the province, a sticky bomb attached to the car of a police officer went off near his house in the city of Dowr, some 150 km north of Baghdad, injuring three people, a provincial police source anonymously told Xinhua.

Violence and sporadic high-profile bomb attacks are still common in the Iraqi cities despite the dramatic decrease in violence since its peak in 2006 and 2007 when the country was engulfed in sectarian killings.