7 killed, 16 wounded in Iraq's violence

BAGHDAD, March 21 (Xinhua) -- Seven people were killed and 16 others injured Wednesday in separate gunfire and bomb attacks in Iraq, the police said.

In Baghdad, gunmen broke into a house at Zaafaraniyah district in southeastern the capital and slaughtered a woman and three of her children, an Interior Ministry source told Xinhua on condition of anonymity.

The victims had their throats cut by the knives of the unidentified attackers, the source said, adding that the Iraqi police launched an investigation into the incident.

In a separate incident, five civilian were injured when a booby- trapped car detonated in Bab al-Sharji area in downtown Baghdad, the source added.

In addition, a roadside bomb went off at al-Mowasalat district in western Baghdad, wounding three civilians, he said.

Separately, the police found the body of a government employee with bullet holes in his chest and head at Baghdad's central district of Karrada, he added.

In west of Baghdad, a civilian was killed and three other injured when a roadside bomb exploded in the town of Saqlawiyah near the city of Fallujah, some 50 km west of Baghdad, a local police source told Xinhua on condition of anonymity.

In Iraq's eastern province of Diyala, gunmen stormed the house of a member of a government-backed Awakening Council group in a village located some 110 km northeast of Baghdad, killing his wife and wounding him before they fled the scene, a provincial police source anonymously told Xinhua.

The Awakening Council group, also known as Sons of Iraq movement or Sahwa, consists of mostly anti-U.S. Sunni insurgent militant groups, who turned their rifles to fight al-Qaida network after Sahwa's leaders became dismayed by al-Qaida's brutality and religious zealotry in the country.

In a separate incident, gunmen attacked an Iraq army checkpoint in al-Adheim area, some 100 km north of Baghdad, wounding four soldiers, the source said.

Also in the Diyala, Iraqi security forces arrested 49 suspects, including 18 wanted individuals, in separate operations across the province during the past 24 hours, the source added.

The attacks came a day after a series of deadly attacks that killed 45 people and wounded some 212 wounded. Tuesday's attacks mostly targeted Iraqi security forces across the country, in what appeared to be an attempt by insurgent groups to destabilize the country ahead of the Arab summit scheduled on March 29.

Posted in: Baghdad, Diyala, Iraq, Iraqi security forces, Karrada, Saqlawiyah