Four killed, nine wounded in Iraq attacks

Bomb and gun attacks killed four people and wounded nine others across Iraq on Sunday, security officials said. In the deadliest attack, gunmen shot dead an employee of the national security ministry and his wife in Qadissiyah in western Baghdad, an interior ministry official said. In Baquba, 60 kilometres (37.5 miles) north of Baghdad, one person was killed and six wounded, among them a woman and children, a security official said. In the restive northern city of Mosul, gunmen killed a restaurant owner, while a passer-by was wounded when a mortar round hit a police station, police said. Police said that a Kurdish security officer and his wife were wounded by a bomb near his house in Kirkuk, capital of the province of the same name, which the autonomous Kurdistan region wants to incorporate against Baghdad's wishes. Bomb and gun attacks in central Iraq killed at least 16 people and wounded more than 20 others on Saturday, two days after triple blasts killed 19 people and wounded at least 65 in the southern port city of Basra. Violence has declined nationwide since its peak in 2006 and 2007, but attacks remain common. A total of 258 people were killed in October, according to official figures. General Lloyd Austin, the top US commander in Iraq, has warned that the country's security situation is likely to see "turbulence" as American forces depart and groups including Al-Qaeda seek to take advantage of this. American troops are set to leave Iraq by the end of 2011.