By IANS,
Baghdad : Seven people were killed and 13 wounded in separate bomb and gunfire attacks mainly targeting the security forces in central and northern Iraq Wednesday, reported Xinhua citing police.
In Baghdad, gunmen using silenced weapons shot dead two soldiers at an Iraqi army checkpoint in the city’s western district of Mansour, an interior ministry source told Xinhua on condition of anonymity.
The attackers planted a roadside bomb at the site and blew it up when a police patrol arrived at the scene, injuring three policemen, the source said.
In northern-central Iraq, a booby-trapped motorcycle detonated near a police patrol in the city of Sulaiman Pek, some 160 km north of Baghdad, killing a policeman and wounding another, a local police source anonymously told Xinhua.
Three civilians were also injured in the blast, the source said.
In Iraq’s northern city of Kirkuk, some 250 km north of Baghdad, a roadside bomb went off near a convoy of vehicles carrying a provincial council member of Salahudin province, killing a 10-year-old child at the scene and injuring two of the official’s bodyguards, a local police source said.
The council member, who was on a visit to Kirkuk province, escaped the attack unhurt, the source said.
Also in Kirkuk, a motorcycle bomb struck a police patrol in the southern Domiez district, destroying a police vehicle and wounding a police officer and three policemen aboard, the source added.
In Iraq’s eastern province of Diyala, unidentified gunmen shot dead two civilians in the town of Qazaniyah, some 170 km northeast of Baghdad, a provincial police source told Xinhua on condition of anonymity.
In a separate incident, a farmer was killed when gunmen opened fire at him in the town of Abu Saiyda, 90 km northeast of Baghdad, the source said.
Violence in Iraq has decreased from its climax in 2006 and 2007, when sectarian conflicts pushed the country to the brink of a civil war, but tensions and sporadic shootings and bombings are still common across the country.