Eight people were killed and three others wounded in gunmen attacks mainly targeting security forces in Iraq's eastern provincial of Diyala on Tuesday, a provincial police source said.

In one attack, five soldiers and a member of the government- backed Sahwa paramilitary group were killed when gunmen attacked their checkpoint at a village near the provincial capital city of Baquba, a provincial police source told Xinhua on condition of anonymity.

Two Sahwa group members and a soldier were also wounded by the attack, the source said.

The Sahwa militia, also known as the Awakening Council or the Sons of Iraq, consists of armed groups, including some powerful anti-US Sunni insurgent groups, who turned their rifles against the al-Qaida network after the latter exercised indiscriminate killings against both Shiite and Sunni Muslim communities.

In a separate incident, gunmen opened fire on a car in the town of Wajihiyah, some 25 km northeast of Baquba, killing two civilians aboard, the source added.

Iraq is witnessing its worst violence in recent years. According to the UN Assistance Mission for Iraq, a total of 8,868 Iraqis, including 7,818 civilians and civilian police personnel, were killed in 2013, which is the highest annual death toll for years.