23 killed, 148 wounded in wave of violent attacks across Iraq

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23 killed, 148 wounded in wave of violent attacks across Iraq

(Xinhua) 08:11, October 14, 2013

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BAGHDAD, Oct. 13 -- At least 23 people were killed and 148 others wounded in separate violent attacks across Iraq on Sunday, police and Interior Ministry officials said.

A suicide bomber wearing an explosive belt blew himself up at a checkpoint of the Federal Police on the Bank Street in central Samarra, some 120 km north of Baghdad, killing four policemen and wounding three people, including two civilians, a police source told Xinhua on condition of anonymity.

Two people were killed and eight others wounded in two roadside bomb attacks in the Doraa area in southern Baghdad, while one person was killed and eight others injured in another roadside bomb attack in the Ameriya area in western Baghdad, the source said.

An electricity engineer died from his wounds in a hospital after he was seriously injured in a roadside bomb attack on his car south of Samarra, the source said, adding that a soldier was injured in a mortar attack on a checkpoint of Iraqi army north of Samarra.

Gunmen assassinated a member of the Municipal Council with silenced weapons in western Baghdad, while five civilians were wounded when two road side bombs exploded in the Sedea area in southwestern Baghdad, the police source said.

Earlier in the day, a series of bomb attacks, including 13 car bomb explosions, mainly struck Shiite cities in central and southern Iraq, killing at least 14 people and wounding 123, apparently in attempts by militant groups to stir up all-out sectarian strife in the country.

The deadliest attack occurred at an out-door market and a nearby parking lot in central Hillah city, the capital of Babil province, which is about 100 km south of the Iraqi capital of Baghdad, killing five people and wounding 27 others, a provincial police source told Xinhua on condition of anonymity.

In Muthanna province, two car bombs went off at al-Rumaitha area near the provincial capital city of Samawa, some 270 km south of Baghdad, killing four people and wounding 13, a provincial police source told Xinhua.

In Iraq's eastern province of Wasit, two people were killed and 17 others injured in two car bomb explosions. One of them hit a parking lot in the provincial capital city of Kut, some 170 km southeast of Baghdad, while the second struck a restaurant in the northern city, a provincial police source and medical officials told Xinhua.

Also in the province, two car bombs ripped through the city of Sawyrah, some 50 km southeast of Baghdad, wounding 22 people, a local police source said.

Meanwhile, two car bombs ripped through the city of Diwaniyah, the capital of Qadsiyah province, which located some 180 km south of Baghdad, killing a civilian and wounding 18 others, a local police source said.

Separately, a civilian was killed and nine wounded in a car bomb explosion in the town of Mahmoudiyah, some 30 km south of Baghdad, an Interior Ministry source told Xinhua.

Two more car bombs detonated in a commercial street in central the oil-hub city of Basra, some 550 km south of Baghdad, wounding 16 people, according to a local police source.

Elsewhere, the police said that a civilian was killed and another one wounded in the city of Samarra, when a roadside bomb went off near a convoy of vehicles carrying people mourning the deaths of an earlier car bombing at an outdoor market in the city on Saturday evening, which reportedly killed 14 and wounded 22.

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 said that almost 6,000 civilians were killed and over 14,000 others injured in Iraq from January to September this year.