Separate attacks kill 17 in Iraq

Press TV, Fri Apr 29, 2011 12:43AM

A bomb explosion inside a Shi'i mosque in central Iraq has killed 10 people and injured 30 others, while 7 others were killed in separate attacks in the country.

An attacker detonated a bomb inside the Imam al-Hussein (PBUH) mosque in Baladruz, around 75 kilometers (50 miles) northeast of Baghdad, after evening prayers on Thursday killing ten men (including the bomber) and injuring 30 others, some in critical condition.

According to a colonel in the provincial security command, some of the injured are in critical condition, AFP reported late Friday.

In the town of Shahria, in Kirkuk, in northern Iraq, a car parked with explosives was detonated as a police convoy was passing nearby killing six people, including police Colonel Mohammed Mohsen and three other policemen. Three policemen and three civilians were also wounded.

In the Ghazaliyah neighborhood of west Baghdad, Brigadier General Mohammed Alaa Jassim was shot dead by gunmen. Jassim was deputy commander of the air force's Al-Muthanna base in central Baghdad.

Bombings and attacks remain a daily occurrence in Iraq, where some 47,000 American soldiers are currently stationed in the oil-rich Middle Eastern country.

The US has long eyed a prolonged stay in war-torn Iraq and has expressed reservations about withdrawing all American troops from the country by the end-of-the-year deadline.

FTP/MGH

12 killed, 40 wounded in eastern Iraq's suicide bombing

BAQUBA, Iraq, April 28 (Xinhua) --

The death toll of a suicide bombing in Iraq's eastern province of Diyala has risen to 12 with 40 others wounded, local police source told Xinhua.

"The attack occurred when a suicide bomber detonated himself inside a Shiite mosque in Baladrowse town, which locates 30 km east of Baquba, capital of Diyala province," said the police who refused to be named because he was not authorized to speak to the media.

"The bombing killed 12 people and wounded another 40, all of whom are Shiites," said the source, adding police and ambulances immediately rushed to the site and blocked the ways and evacuated the victims.

Diyala province, which stretches from the eastern edges of Baghdad to the Iranian border east to the country, has long been a stronghold for al-Qaida militants and other insurgent groups since the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq in 2003 despite repeated U.S. and Iraqi military operations against them.

Violence and sporadic high-profile bomb attacks continue in Iraqi cities despite the dramatic decrease of violence over the last three years.

Editor: Mu Xuequan

Four killed, 21 wounded in Iraq's violence

BAGHDAD, April 27, 2011 (Xinhua) --

A Kurdish security man was killed, three bodies were found and 21 people were wounded in separate gunfire and bomb attacks in northern and central Iraq, the police said on Wednesday.

In west of Baghdad, the police found three bodies dumped in southeastern the city of Falluajh, some 50 km west of the capital, a local police source told Xinhua on condition of anonymity.

The bodies have signs of torture with holes of bullets in the head and chest, added the source.

In Iraq's northern Kirkuk, a sticky bomb attached to a truck detonated near the convoy of a police chief late on Tuesday in Arafah area in northern the city of Kirkuk, some 250 km north of Baghdad, a local police source told Xinhua on condition of anonymity.

The police chief escaped unharmed, but later two roadside bomb explosions hit police and Kurdish security forces who arrived at the scene of the first blast, killing a Kurdish security man and wounding 15 others along with three policemen, the source said.

In Baghdad, four people were wounded in the morning when a roadside bomb ripped through the neighborhood of al-Mashtel in eastern the capital, an Interior Ministry source told Xinhua on condition of anonymity.

Also in the capital, Shafeeq al-Mahdi, director general of the state directorate of cinema and theater, escaped unharmed a sticky bomb explosion in his car when he arrived the garage of his office in the morning, wounding two guards at the garage, the source said.

Violence in the country underscores the challenges that the Iraqi security forces are facing as they struggle to restore stability and normalcy in Iraqi cities about eight months before the departure of all American forces by the end of 2011.

Four people killed in Iraq's violence

BAGHDAD, April 26 (Xinhua) --

Four people were killed in separate gunfire and bomb attacks in Baghdad and Iraq's northern province of Kirkuk, the police said on Tuesday.

In Kirkuk province, two children were killed and four people wounded when gunmen planted bombs around the homes of two police officers and blew them up in the town of Hawija, 60 km west of the provincial capital city of Kirkuk, Sarhat Abdul-Qader, a police chief in Kirkuk province told Xinhua.

Separately, two people were wounded when gunmen bombed the house of a municipal official in the town of al-Ryadh, some 50 km southwest of Kirkuk City, Qader said.

Also in the province, the police found the body of a policeman on a main road northeast of the city of Kirkuk, some 250 km north of Baghdad, Qader added.

The victim went missing on Monday and his body has signs of gunshot in the head, he said.

The oil-rich Kirkuk province and its capital Kirkuk City are part of the disputed areas between the Kurds and both Arabs and Turkmans. The area has long been the hotbed of insurgency since the U.S.-led invasion in 2003.

In Baghdad, gunmen using silenced weapons shot dead Hatam Kareem, an official with Baghdad governor's office, near his house in al-Amil district in southwestern the capital late on Monday night, an Interior Ministry source told Xinhua on condition of anonymity.

Violence in the country underscores the challenges that the Iraqi security forces are facing as they struggle to restore stability and normalcy in Iraqi cities about eight months before the departure of all American forces by the end of 2011.