Eight killed, several wounded in Iraq blasts (Roundup)

Nov 10, 2007, 14:38 GMT

Baghdad - Eight Iraqis were killed and several wounded in explosions and other attacks in Baghdad, Baquba and Mosul on Saturday, while the death toll in an overnight attack on a meeting of Baquba tribal leaders rose to five.

A blast which ripped through a bus in the Boursa area of western Mosul left four dead and 16 wounded, the head of the Nineveh military operations room, Brigadier Abdel-Kareem al-Juburi, told the Voices of Iraq (VOI) news agency.

Two Iraqis were killed and 10 wounded in two separate explosions near the Kilani gas station in central Baghdad and the Baladiyyat neighbourhood in eastern Baghdad, local authorities said.

Meanwhile, a policeman was killed when unknown militants attacked a police patrol in the Azim area of Baquba, 60 kilometres north of Baghdad. In Katoun district, also in Baquba, a bakery worker was shot down by gunmen, police sources told Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa.

The same sources said the city's hospital received four unidentified bodies showing signs of torture and gunshot wounds.

The death toll of an overnight suicide bombing that rocked a meeting of high-level tribal leaders near Baquba, meanwhile, rose to five on Saturday.

Sheikh Faiez Lafta al-Obeidi, who was also the deputy head of the anti-terrorism voluntary group known as the Diyala Salvation Front, and four of his relatives were among the dead.

Three people were also wounded in the attack that occurred while members of the group were gathered at al-Obedi's house in al-Khalis district near Baquba, the provisional capital of north-eastern Diyala province, according to reports.

Salvation Fronts, newly-formed 'resistance' groups across Iraq, are usually set up by local clans and made up of Sunni and Shiite members.

They have vowed to take up arms against al-Qaeda members in Iraq, including the so-called Islamic State of Iraq, an al-Qaeda-affiliated extremist group which has been carrying out attacks against civilians, Iraqi security forces and multinational forces across Iraq.

The group has also been blamed for kidnappings.

Several members of the Salvation Fronts have been targeted and killed.

In another development, the US military said on Saturday that a soldier was killed and three others wounded in an explosion during an operation in Diyala province a day earlier. An explosive devise was detonated as a US army patrol passed.

In another incident reported Saturday by al-Sabah newspaper, gunmen reportedly attacked the Majnoun oil field in Basra, 550 kilometres north of Baghdad, and destroyed some buildings near it Thursday.

The attack also destroyed water tanks near the oil field flooding certain areas. According to the paper, this is the third attack on the Majnoun oil field. No human losses were reported.

Meanwhile, Iraq's Interior Minister Jawad al-Boulani confessed in an interview with the pan-Arab al-Sharq al-Awsat newspaper that the ranks of his ministry were infiltrated by elements loyal to certain parties or religious groups and that the ministry needed 'a comprehensive reshuffle.'

He also told the newspaper that around 190,000 pieces of weaponry were missing and believed to be stolen from the ministry's stocks.