By DPA
Baghdad : At least 24 people were killed and 37 wounded when a fresh wave of violence hit the Iraqi capital, provinces of Diyala and Tamim provinces and the surrounding areas Tuesday.
In a town near Baquba, capital of the northern Diyala province, at least 10 people, including six police officers, were killed and as many wounded when a suicide bomber detonated a car bomb near a police checkpoint.
Baquba is located some 50 km northeast of Baghdad.
In Khalis district, 62 km east of Baghdad, a suicide attacker drove a car rigged with explosives into a police checkpoint killing four policemen, and two civilians. At least 10 were wounded in the incident including women and children.
In various parts of Baghdad, at least four people were killed and 15 wounded in three bomb blasts, a police source told the independent Voices of Iraq (VOI) news agency.
In an early morning attack, a roadside bomb went off near a commercial area at Rashid camp, southeastern Baghdad, killing three civilians and wounding five.
Another blast near an Iraqi police patrol in the Zaafaraniya neighbourhood killed a policeman and wounded five.
In the third explosion, three policemen and two civilians were wounded in Zayuna neighbourhood, eastern Baghdad.
Meanwhile, a group of unidentified gunmen shot dead a family of three Tuesday morning in Diyala, while an armed group blew up a fuel station in a nearby district, local authorities told VOI.
The Iraqi couple and their daughter were attacked in the Mafraq area of Baquba, 60 kilometres north of Baghdad, according to a police source.
The same source said no casualties were reported when an armed group blew up a fuel station in Khalis district.
A police source in Kirkuk, 250 kilometres north of Baghdad, told DPA a civilian was killed and two were wounded in a bomb blast. Meanwhile, police forces said they had found five bodies overnight across Kirkuk, which lies in the Tamim province.
The US military in Iraq said a US soldier was killed in an attack during combat operations a day earlier in central Baghdad. At least 10 US soldiers and two Iraqi soldiers were injured in the incident.
In a separate statement, the US military said US-led coalition troops discovered a weapons cache on Sep 30 in a buried plastic barrel in Baghdad. The cache included four Iranian hand grenades, a rocket-propelled grenade launcher and machine gun rounds.