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| Iraq |
| 19 killed in violence in Iraq |
| 2014-02-10 |
| BAGHDAD -- At least 19 people were killed and 19 others wounded in violent attacks across Iraq, police said on Sunday. Two people were killed and seven wounded when a car bomb went off at a marketplace in the Shiite district of Sadr City in the eastern part of the Iraqi capital of Baghdad, a police source told Xinhua on condition of anonymity. Meanwhile, another car bomb struck an army patrol in the town of Mahmoudiyah, some 30 km south of Baghdad, leaving a soldier killed and three wounded, the source said. Three passers-by were also wounded by the blast which damaged several nearby shops and buildings, the source added. In Iraq's eastern province of Diyala, three civilians were killed, including a child, and five others wounded when three roadside bombs exploded in the early hours of the day in al-Gatoon district in the southwestern part of the provincial capital city of Baquba, some 65 km northeast of Baghdad, a provincial police source anonymously told Xinhua. Separately, the police found two bodies of civilians shot dead in their heads and dumped near a river in the eastern part of Baquba, the source said. Also in the province, gunmen opened fire on a car carrying a leading figure of a Shiite militia named Asa'ib Ahl al-Haq and his aide near Baquba, leaving him critically wounded and killing his aide, the source added. The Shiite militia is a militant group that previously splintered from Mahdi Army militia, loyal to Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr. The group is widely believed to be backed by the neighboring Shiite state of Iran. They are allegedly funded, trained and armed by Iran's Quds Force. Earlier in the day, a police source from Salahudin province told Xinhua that six policemen and four anti-Qaida militiamen were killed by gunmen in two incidents. In one of the attacks, gunmen stormed a police checkpoint before dawn and shot dead six policemen outside a village near the city of Tuz-Khurmato, some 90 km east of the provincial capital city of Tikrit, a source told Xinhua on condition of anonymity. Late on Saturday night, police found the bodies of a leader of government-backed Sahwa paramilitary group, his two sons and nephew, who were kidnapped by gunmen three days ago from their home near Tikrit, some 170 km north of the Iraqi capital of Baghdad, the source said. |
| Posted by:Steve White |