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12 killed, 27 wounded in attacks in Iraq

24 July 2013 19:33 (UTC +04:00)

Baku-APA. Eleven policemen and a civilian were killed and 27 people wounded on Wednesday in separate bombings and shootings in northern and central Iraq, police said, APA reports quoting Xinhua.

In the morning, gunmen attacked a police station with mortar rounds and assault rifles near the northern city of Mosul, some 400 km north of the Iraqi capital of Baghdad, killing up to 11 policemen and wounding another, a local police source told Xinhua on condition of anonymity.

Afterwards, a roadside bomb went off when reinforcement troops arrived at the scene, wounding two people, the source said.

Elsewhere, a car bomb went off near an Iraqi army patrol at the industrial area in the southern part of the city of Kirkuk, some 250 km north of Baghdad, wounding five soldiers, a local police source anonymously told Xinhua.

In a separate incident, another car bomb detonated near a pet market in central Kirkuk, wounding 16 people and caused damage to two nearby houses and several shops and stalls, the source said.

In Iraq's eastern province of Diyala, the police found the body of a school guard with bullet holes in his head and chest near the town of Mandely, some 90 km east of provincial capital city of Baquba, a provincial police source said.

Separately, a policeman and a civilian were wounded in a roadside bomb explosion near their vehicle outside Baquba, some 65 km northeast of Baghdad, the source said.

In addition, a soldier was wounded when a roadside bomb struck his vehicle while on patrol near the city of Saadiyah, about 60 km north of Baquba, the source added.

Iraq is witnessing its worst eruption of violence in five years, raising fears that the latest bloodshed is leading the country back to a full-blown civil conflict that peaked in 2006 and 2007, when the monthly death toll sometimes exceeded 3,000.