Three attacks on Iraqi security forces on Wednesday killed 19 people and wounded more than 50 across Iraq as the country struggles to protect itself while facing the US militaryÂ’s departure at the end of the year.In the worst attack Wednesday, a car bomb parked outside a restaurant where local police were having breakfast killed 15 people and wounded 41 in the southern town of al-Shumali, said Hillah hospital Dr. Zuhair al-Khafaji. Deputy governor of Babil province, Faleh al-Mahna, confirmed the toll.
Two of the dead were policemen, and four others were among the wounded, al-Khafaji said. The bodies and wounded victims were brought to his hospital.
An eyewitness, who refused to give his name fearing he would be targeted, said the restaurant was full when the car bomb exploded shortly before 8 a.m. “A lot of travelers and innocent people were inside the place having their breakfast when the car bomb went off,” he said.
Al-Shumali is just south of Hillah and about 55 miles (90 km) south of Baghdad. It is also a popular resting place for Shiite pilgrims headed to the holy shrine of the Imam al-Hamza, located three miles (four km) south of the town.
Earlier, in the dawn attack, gunmen opened fire on a security patrol in a mixed Sunni-Shiite neighborhood in northeastern Baghdad. The gunmen escaped after killing two policemen and wounding a third, according to a police official and a medic at Baghdad city hospital.
Later in the morning, about a half hour after the al-Shumali blast and more than 100 miles (145 km) away, a bomb exploded on a minibus that was carrying soldiers to a training area in western IraqÂ’s Anbar province. Two soldiers were killed and 11 wounded by the bomb, which was hidden on the bus, inside their own camp near the town of Habbaniyah, 50 miles (80 km) west of Baghdad.