Nine killed in violent attacks in Iraq

Baghdad – At least nine people were killed and 15 others wounded in violent attacks in Iraq Sunday, police said.

Two policemen were killed and six others wounded when a suicide car bomber attacked a police station in Baquba city, 60 km northeast of Baghdad, a police source told Xinhua.

Two other suicide bombers tried to enter the police station after the first blast, but they were stopped by police guards, the source added.

Earlier, a suicide car bomb attacked a police checkpoint in Tall Afar, 70 km west of the northern city of Mosul, killing two policemen and wounding three others and a civilian, the police source said.

Two Iraqi soldiers were killed as unidentified gunmen travelling in a car fired at an army checkpoint with automatic weapons in eastern Mosul, 400 km north of Baghdad, he added.

An army officer was killed and three soldiers were wounded when a roadside bomb targeted an army patrol in the area of Yusufiya, just 20 km south of Baghdad, the police source said.

A civilian was killed and two others were injured when a roadside bomb exploded near the Diyala Bridge in southeastern Baghdad, while an engineer with the Iraqi ministry of agriculture was killed by unidentified gunmen in the Ghazaliya area in the western part of the capital city, the source said.

Iraq is witnessing its worst eruption of violence in recent years. According to the UN Assistance Mission for Iraq, almost 7,000 Iraqi civilians were killed and over 16,000 others injured from January to October this year.