19 killed, 27 wounded in violent attacks across Iraq

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19 killed, 27 wounded in violent attacks across Iraq

(Xinhua) 10:09, October 10, 2013

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At least 19 people were killed and 27 others wounded in separate violent attacks across Iraq on Wednesday, police and interior ministry officials said.

Unidentified gunmen attacked a checkpoint of Iraqi police in southern Baiji, some 200 km north of Baghdad, killing four policemen and wounding six others, and the militants fled the scene after the attack, a police source told Xinhua on condition of anonymity.

A suicide bomber used a car bomb to attack a convoy of Iraqi parliament speaker Osama al-Nujaifi in Ain al-Jahish area south of Mosul, 400 km north of Baghdad, followed by clashes between gunmen and the speaker's bodyguards, the police source said.

Two of the bodyguards were killed and eight others wounded, the source said, adding that al-Nujaifi was not in the convoy when the attack took place.

A soldier was killed and three others were wounded when a roadside bomb exploded near their patrol on the way to Tal Afar, west of Mosul, the police source said.

An anti-terrorism police officer was killed when unidentified gunmen attacked his car with guns in the city center of Hit, some 150 km west of Baghdad, a local police source told Xinhua.

An armed group driving a civilian car attacked a police car in northern Fallujah, some 50 km west of Baghdad, killing a police officer and wounding another, the source said.

Earlier in the day, 10 people were killed and nine others wounded in separate violent attacks in the country.

In one of the attacks, a roadside bomb went off near a bus carrying farm workers on a main road near the town of Hafriyah, some 50 km southeast of Baghdad, killing eight workers and wounding six others, a local police source told Xinhua on condition of anonymity.

In a separate incident, gunmen stormed a car repair workshop and shot dead the owner before they fled the scene, an interior ministry source anonymously told Xinhua.

Meanwhile, gunmen attacked a police checkpoint in the city of Baiji, some 200 km north of Baghdad, killing a policeman and wounding three others, a local police source said.

In addition, unidentified gunmen kidnapped three civilians in a village located in east of the city of Shirqat, some 280 km north of Baghdad, a local police source said.

Iraq is witnessing its worst eruption of violence in recent years, which raises fears that the country is sliding back to the full-blown civil conflict that peaked in 2006 and 2007, when monthly death toll sometimes exceeded 3,000.

The UN Assistance Mission for Iraq has said that almost 6,000 civilians were killed and over 14,000 others injured in Iraq from January to September this year.