12 killed, 40 injured in Iraqi violence shooting of woman (Roundup)

Oct 23, 2008, 14:55 GMT

Baghdad - An apparent suicide bomb attack on the convoy of an Iraqi minister killed 11 and injured 22 Thursday, witnesses told the Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa.

The attack on the convoy of Iraqi Labour Minister Mahmoud al-Radi occurred in the Tahrir Square area in Baghdad, al-Arabiya TV reported.

Al-Radi was not injured in the blast, his ministry said in a statement.

Separately, a blast in a market area injured 16 people in Iraq's Diyala province.

Also in Diyala, a woman was killed and a man and a woman were injured after they were shot by US forces in Baquba. Baquba is located 60 kilometres north of Baghdad.

US forces did not comment on the incident, according to the Voices of Iraq (VOI) news agency.

Meanwhile, Iraq's Babel province took over its own security from the Multi-National Forces.

'Taking responsibility of Babel province shows that the Iraqi forces are capable of taking control of its own security and fight terrorism,' Mowaffaq al-Rubaie, Iraq's national security adviser, said during the celebration ceremony.

The Iraqi central government is keen to take over security in Iraq's 18 provinces. Wasit province, east of Babel, will receive its security file within the coming days, al-Rubaie said.

The handing over of the security file came amid a military parade. US soldiers were present in a the ceremony along with Iraqi high ranking officials and clan chiefs. No other nationalities were present.

The Shiite province is the twelfth province to receive its security file.

Since 2006, Diwaniyah, Samarra, Najaf, Karbala Nasiriyah, Amarah, Basra, and Anbar received their security files along with the three Kurdish northern provinces of Arbil, Sulaymaniyah and Dohuk.