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Dozens killed in separate attacks in Iraq: police

17 July 2013 20:04 (UTC +04:00)

Baku-APA. Thirteen people were killed and 11 others wounded in separate violent attacks across Iraq on Wednesday, police sources said, APA reports quoting Xinhua.

In Iraq's eastern province of Diyala, three children were killed and five others injured when a roadside bomb went off near a small river in the provincial capital city of Baquba, about 65 km northeast of Iraq's capital Baghdad, a local police source told Xinhua on condition of anonymity.

Not far away from the same city, unknown gunmen opened fire on the car of Sheikh Ali al-Jumaily, chieftain of a Sunni tribe, in Maqdadiyah, some 30 km northeast of Baquba, killing his wife and wounding him, his son and cousin, the source said, adding that two other civilians were also killed and another injured in separate militants attacks in the same rural area.

Sectarian tension and reprisal killings have been running high recently between Sunni and Shiite Muslims in Maqdadiyah and the surrounding villages, as each side accuses the other of supporting extremists and militiamen.

Diyala province, which stretches from the eastern edges of Baghdad to the border with Iran, has long been a volatile area since the U.S-led invasion of Iraq in 2003 despite repeated military operations against the militant groups.

In Salahudin province, the Sunni hometown of former Saddam Hussein, clashes erupted late Tuesday when gunmen attacked the house of Lieutenant Colonel Ali al-Jubouri, an aide of the local police chief, killing three of his guards and wounding another, a provincial police source anonymously told Xinhua.

Elsewhere, a soldier was killed and another wounded in the morning in a roadside bomb explosion near their military vehicle while patrolling al-Sideeq district in the northern city of Mosul, the police said. Also, two soldiers were killed when unidentified gunmen attacked an army patrol on the highway in al-Jazira area in Ramadi, some 110 km west of the capital.

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