By DPA,
Baghdad : At least 20 people were killed Sunday and 44 wounded in different incidents across Iraq, including an attack by a female suicide bomber, security sources and media reports said.
The bomber detonated herself near a downtown governmental office in Baquba, killing at least 17 and wounding 42, security sources told DPA.
Sources said the explosion in the northern Iraqi city occurred in an area enclosed by large cement blocks. Eight police officers were among those killed, they added.
Also in Baquba, security sources told the Voices of Iraq (VOI) news agency that Iraqi forces detained three suspected terrorists accused of abducting and killing three people from the same family.
On Saturday, forces found three family members’ bodies with signs of gunshots in Baquba’s Tahrir area.
In other news, three people were killed and two wounded when a bomb targeted a civilian’s vehicle in the Rashad area in Kirkuk, some 250 km north of Baghdad, security sources told VOI. Two women were among the dead, sources added.
Earlier, an explosive device was detonated south-east of Kirkuk, but there were no immediate reports of casualties.
Sources meanwhile said that security forces detained three suspected terrorists in the Shia city of Karbala.
The detainees carried some documents that revealed a plan to attack religious institutions and were arrested while attempting to cross an underground tunnel in the western side of the city.
Karbala, one of Iraq’s largest Shia cities, has two underground tunnels, placed to secure the city from terrorist smuggling.