At least 17 killed in overnight attacks in Iraq

Source:Xinhua Published: 2013-7-26 11:29:15

At least 17 people were killed and 40 wounded in separate bombings and shootings in northern and central Iraq on Thursday, police said.

At least six people were killed and 18 wounded when a bomb ripped through a popular coffee shop in the town of Madain, some 30 km southeast of the Iraqi capital of Baghdad, an Interior Ministry source told Xinhua on condition of anonymity.

In a separate incident, a roadside bomb detonated near a wedding at a house in Amriyah district in the western part of Baghdad, leaving two people killed and 13 wounded, along with damaging several nearby cars and houses, the source said.

In northern Iraq, an Iraqi army force shot dead two gunmen who were caught killing a policeman outside his house in southern the city of Mosul, some 400 km north of Baghdad, a local police source anonymously told Xinhua.

Separately, a police officer was killed and six people were wounded, including three policemen, when a roadside bomb struck a police patrol in northern Mosul, the source said.

Meanwhile, an army force shot dead two gunmen and captured two while they were trying to shoot a civilian in eastern Mosul, the source added.

The troops also seized two silenced weapons that were used by the gunmen, the source said.

Also in the city, gunmen in a car shot dead an employee working for Mosul local government in eastern the city, he said.









A policeman was killed and a civilian wounded when gunmen using assault rifles attacked a car in the town of al-Shoura, some 50 km south of Mosul, the source added.

Elsewhere, two policemen were wounded when a gunman threw a hand grenade on their checkpoint in the town of Hamam al-Alil, some 25 km south of Mosul, he said.

In addition, a policeman was killed when gunmen attacked a police checkpoint at a village near the city of Balad, some 80 km north of Baghdad, a local police source told Xinhua.

Earlier in the day, the police said that 28 people were killed in separate attacks across the country, including the killing of 14 truck drivers by fake checkpoint near the town of Sulaiman Pek in northern central the country.

Thursday's attack came amid increasing violence that was sparked on April 23, when Iraqi security forces stormed an anti- government Sunni protest in Hawijah city, some 220 km north of Baghdad, killing and wounding dozens of protesters.

The military operation against the sit-in camp in Hawijah led to further clashes across the country's predominantly Sunni provinces between the Sunni tribes and the Shiite-dominated security forces.

Posted in: Mid-East

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