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11 killed in attacks in Iraq

30 January 2014 20:16 (UTC +04:00)

Baku-APA. Eleven people were killed and 30 others wounded in separate violent attacks on Thursday, including a coordinate suicide attack, in the Iraqi capital of Baghdad, police said, further reflecting the deteriorating security situation in the Middle Eastern country, APA reports quoting Xinhua.

Thursday's deadliest attack took place before noon when four gunmen and two suicide bombers broke into an office belonging to the Ministry of Transportation in eastern Baghdad, an Interior Ministry source told Xinhua on condition of anonymity.

Iraqi security forces clashed with the assailants at the entrance and inside the building and then retook control of the site after killing all of the gunmen, who apparently did not take any hostages, the source said.

Two security members were killed in the clashes and seven others were wounded, the source added.

However, state-run Iraqiya Television quoted Brigadier General Saad Maan, the Interior Ministry spokesman, as saying security forces managed to evacuate the government building and the surrounding buildings without casualties.

In a separate incident, two civilians were killed and nine others wounded when a car bomb detonated in Maghrib thoroughfare in the Adhamiyah district in the north of the capital, the source said.

According to the source, another car bomb went off near an army patrol at a marketplace in Shaab district in northeastern Baghdad, killing a soldier and wounding three others along with six civilians.

Also in the day, five civilians were wounded in a roadside bomb explosion at an intersection in Talbiyah district, also in northeastern Baghdad, the source said.

Iraq is witnessing its worst violence in years. According to the UN Assistance Mission for Iraq, a total of 8,868 Iraqis, including 7,818 civilians and civilian police personnel, were killed in 2013, the highest annual death toll in years.