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.

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Blast kills four, wounds nine in Iraqi market

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BAGHDAD, Feb. 26 (Xinhua) -- An explosion ripped through a shop at a popular market in eastern Iraq Sunday evening, leaving four dead and nine injured, a local police source said.

The blast, believed to be caused by a bomb, destroyed the shop and levelled two adjacent shops in a town located in Diyala province, the source told Xinhua on condition of anonymity.

Three children and one woman were among the wounded, he added.

Iraqi security forces have cordoned off the area and carried out investigations.

Diyala, which borders Iran, has been plagued by violence since the 2003 U.S.-led invasion. Iraq has seen an uptick of violence in recent weeks as a result of reignited Sunni-Shia conflict.

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13 people killed in bomb attacks in Iraq

BAGHDAD, Jan. 26 (Xinhua) -- A total of 13 people were killed and eight wounded in separate bomb and gunfire attacks on Thursday in Iraq, the police said.

In northern Iraq, a motorcycle packed with explosives went off near a primary school in al-Tiseen district in central the city of Kirkuk, some 250 km north of the capital Baghdad, killing three people and wounding six others, a local police source told Xinhua on condition of anonymity.

The powerful blast caused severe damages to the school and nearby buildings along with destroying several nearby civilian cars, the source said.

The city is part of disputed areas between the central government in Baghdad and the Kurdish semi-autonomous region in northern Iraq. The area has long been the hotbed of insurgency since the U.S.-led invasion in 2003.

In Iraq's eastern province of Diyala, gunmen opened fire on the house of a policeman in the town of Khalis near the provincial capital city of Baquba, some 65 km northeast of Baghdad, injuring the policeman and his brother, a provincial polices source anonymously told Xinhua.

Earlier in the day, the police reported another attack on a policeman's house in south of Baghdad when insurgents in the early morning hours blew up bombs in the house of the policeman Ahmed Zuwaiyn in the town of Mussayab, some 60 km south of Baghdad, killing him and nine of his family members, a local police source said.

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BAGHDAD — Insurgents bombed a house belonging to two policemen and their families in central Iraq early on Thursday, killing 10 people inside in the latest brazen attack since the U.S. troop withdrawal, officials said.

The house where the two policemen brothers lived was located in the Hamia area, about 31 miles south of Baghdad, a police officer said. It was leveled when insurgents detonated bombs they had planted around it at 1:00 a.m.

Both policemen, two children under one years of age and four women were among the dead, he added. A doctor at a nearby hospital confirmed the causality figure. Both officials spoke on condition of anonymity as they were not authorized to release information.

Also Thursday, a motorcycle bomb missed a passing police patrol in the northern city of Kirkuk, but killed two civilians and wounded five others, the city's police commander Brig. Gen. Sarhad Qadir said.

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