22 people killed, 64 wounded in attacks in Iraq

Bomb and gunfire attacks, mainly targeting Iraqi security forces, in the predominantly Sunni areas in Iraq on Wednesday killed 22 and wounded some 64 others, as the country struggles to contain the worst violence since 2008. The deadliest attack in the day occurred in the morning when gunmen attacked a police station with mortar rounds and assault rifles near the northern city of Mosul, some 400 km north of the Iraqi capital of Baghdad, killing up to 11 policemen and wounding another, a local police source told Xinhua on condition of anonymity. Afterwards, a roadside bomb went off when reinforcement troops arrived at the scene, wounding two people, the source said. In Salahudin province, unidentified gunmen stopped a minibus on a highway near the provincial capital city of Tikrit, some 170 km north of Baghdad, killing four soldiers aboard and wounding four others, along with wounding the driver, a provincial police source told Xinhua on condition of anonymity. In Baghdad, four people were killed and 10 wounded when a roadside bomb went off in the evening at a busy marketplace in al- Qahira district in northern the capital, an Interior Ministry source anonymously told Xinhua. The blast damaged several nearby shops and civilian cars, the source said. In north of Baghdad, a roadside bomb struck a police patrol in the town of Tarmiyah, some 40 km north of Baghdad, damaging a police vehicle and wounding three policemen aboard, the source added. In Iraq's western province of Anbar, a roadside bomb hit an Iraqi army patrol in the city of al-Qaim, located some 330 km west of Baghdad near the Iraqi-Syrian border, killing a soldier and wounding another, a provincial police source said. In a separate incident, two soldiers were wounded in a roadside bomb explosion near an army patrol near the city of Fallujah, some 50 km west of Baghdad, the source said. Elsewhere, a car bomb went off near an Iraqi army patrol at the industrial area in the southern part of the city of Kirkuk, some 250 km north of Baghdad, killing an officer and wounding five soldiers, a local police source anonymously told Xinhua. Also in the day, another car bomb detonated near a pet market south of Kirkuk, wounding up to 32 people and caused damage to two nearby houses and several shops and stalls, the source said. Earlier police report put the toll at 16 wounded by the blast. In Iraq's eastern province of Diyala, the police found the body of a school guard with bullet holes in his head and chest near the town of Mandely, some 90 km east of provincial capital city of Baquba, a provincial police source said. Separately, a policeman and a civilian were wounded in a roadside bomb explosion near their vehicle outside Baquba, some 65 km northeast of Baghdad, the source said. In addition, a soldier was wounded when a roadside bomb struck his vehicle while on patrol near the city of Saadiyah, about 60 km north of Baquba, the source added. Iraq is witnessing its worst eruption of violence in five years, raising fears that the latest bloodshed is leading the country back to a full-blown civil conflict that peaked in 2006 and 2007, when the monthly death toll sometimes exceeded 3,000.