10 killed, 28 wounded in Iraq attacks

Bomb and gun attacks across Iraq on Monday killed at least 10 people and wounded 28, many of them policemen and soldiers, security officials said. In Baghdad's Mansur neighbourhood, three policeman were killed and one wounded by an improvised bomb that also hurt three civilians, an interior ministry official said. Another suicide bomber in the Baab al-Muadham neighbourhood of central Baghdad wounded five security personnel guarding a bus station, the official said. In south Baghdad an improvised bomb killed one person and wounded three others. Meanwhile, in the city of Fallujah, 69 kilometers (43 miles) west of Baghdad, a car bomb exploded outside a hospital killing a policeman and a civilian, said police official Major Nuri al-Jumaili. Eight other people were wounded, five of them policemen. In Haditha, also in western Iraq, a suicide bomber blew up his explosives-packed belt near the city council building, wounding two policemen, he said. In southern Babil province, a roadside bomb killed one soldier and wounded two civilians, and a gunman assassinated a policeman from the anti-crimes unit. Three children foraging through a rubbish heap also were wounded by a bomb. Meanwhile, in northern Iraq, gunmen with silencers killed a member of President Jalal Talabani's Patriotic Union of Kurdistan in Diyala, and a soldier was killed and one wounded by an improvised bomb outside the city of Mosul, security officials said. June was the deadliest month this year for the number of Iraqis killed in attacks, according to government figures. It was the bloodiest since June 2008 for US troops, who are due to withdraw from Iraq by the end of this year. A total of 271 Iraqis and 14 US soldiers lost their lives in June. Iraq has blamed Al-Qaeda for the increased death toll in June, which was up 34 percent on May. But the US military holds Iranian-backed Shiite militias responsible for the deadly attacks on its troops.