At least 15 killed, 22 injured in Iraq violence (Roundup)

Jul 6, 2008, 14:36 GMT

U.S soldiers secure the site of a car bomb attack in al-Shaab district in Baghdad, Iraq, 06 July 2008. EPA/SHEHAB AHMED

Baghdad - At least 15 people were killed Sunday, including two children, and 22 injured, one of them a Kurdish politician, in separate attacks in Iraq, security sources said.

In north-east Baghdad, a car bomb rocked the Shiite Shaab district, killing six people and injuring 14, police said.

The explosion, in front of the mortuary of the city's main al- Yarmuk hospital, came as the Iraqi capital has been enjoying a lull in violence.

In the restive Diyala province, an official from the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan, Mohamed Ramadan, survived a bomb blast, which killed his wife, two of his children and three bodyguards.

Ramadan, his son and two others were injured in the blast, which targeting his motorcade, a statement posted on the party's website said.

Elsewhere in Diyala, north-east of Baghdad, an Iraqi army soldier was killed and four others were injured when a bomb went off while they were on patrol in Baquba, a security source told the Voices of Iraq (VOI) news agency.

In the south, gunmen shot dead an Iraqi merchant after attacking his house in Kut, 170 kilometers south-east Baghdad, security sources told VOI.

Samir Mohamed Jafaar was a US citizen whose garment-importing business from China is Iraq's largest. He arrived in Iraq from abroad 10 days ago, the sources added.

Gunmen riding in a car kidnapped two female students north of Mosul, 400 kilometers north of Baghdad, VOI reported. The women were from Talkif, a predominantly Christian safe area in northern Nineveh province.

Separately, a US soldier died Saturday of non-combat causes, which makes him the first US soldier to die in July. A US military statement released Sunday did not give the cause of the death.