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Iraq: Attacks kill 8 people in Iraq

24 October 2012 19:20 (UTC +04:00)

Baku-APA. Iraqi insurgents launched a new wave of attacks targeting security forces and others across the country on Wednesday, killing eight people including a 7-year-old child, police and health officials said, APA reports quoting Associated Press.
Militants in a speeding car attacked an Iraqi army checkpoint, opening fire from pistols fitted with silencers in Baghdad’s western Mansour neighborhood, a police officer said. Two soldiers died in that attack.
The officer added that a roadside bomb exploded shortly afterward as a police patrol was heading to the scene of the Mansour attack, killing one policeman and wounding six people.
Shortly before dawn, a sniper shot at a police patrol on foot in the capital’s eastern Mashtal neighborhood, killing one policeman, another police officer said.
In the northern oil-rich city of Kirkuk, a parked motorcycle packed with explosives went off near the passing convoy of a local politician, killing the child and wounding four other people, a police officer said. Politician Ali al-Hashemi, an ethnic Turkomen, escaped unharmed, he added.
Kirkuk, about 290 kilometers (180 miles) north of Baghdad, is home to mix of Arabs, Kurds and Turkomen, who all are competing to control the city.
Also, police said that two Shiite civilians were killed when gunmen sprayed their car with bullets near Baqouba city in central Iraq.
In Tuz Khormato some 210 kilometers (130 miles) northeast of Baghdad, a roadside bomb struck a police patrol, killing a policeman and wounding three others.
Health officials in hospitals near the attack sites confirmed the casualty figures. All officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to release the information.
The attacks came a day after insurgents attacked Shiite neighborhoods in Baghdad with car bombs and mortar rounds, killing nine people and wounding 26.
Civilians, security forces and officials are the favorite targets for insurgents seeking to undermine public confidence in government efforts to restore security.
Meanwhile, authorities summoned employees of the Central Bank to give their testimonies following allegations of financial wrongdoing, a judicial spokesman said.
Abdul-Sattar Bayrkdar of the Supreme Judicial Council said two groups of bank employees have been brought so far before the judges in the past two days, but he gave no specific numbers. None of the employees has been arrested.
Arrest warrants have been issued for 16 bank officials over corruption allegations raised by a special parliamentary committee formed to probe the bank. They include longtime governor Sinan al-Shabibi, a politically independent economist who has led the institution since 2003. He is out of the country.
On remarks posted on his official website Wednesday, Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki denied that his administration was behind the investigation that led to the arrest warrants, seeking to quell allegations that the case is politically motivated.