Middle East News

Eight killed in violent attacks across Iraq

Jun 13, 2011, 14:33 GMT

Baghdad - Eight people were killed in Iraq on Monday in separate acts of violence which included a deadly car bombing, according to security sources.

The suicide car bombing in the southern city of Basra left five people dead and 20 injured, security sources said.

The bomber tried to drive his car though a police barracks in Basra, some 550 kilometres south of Baghdad, but security forces prevented him. The car then exploded at the gate, head of security committee at the provincial council Ali al-Maliki said.

Witnesses said the body of the bomber was seen metres away from the blast.

Two Iraqi soldiers were killed in separate attacks in the northern city of Mosul, Mohamed al-Jaburi, an officer at the Mosul police operations office, told the German Press Agency dpa.

Gunmen raided a soldier's home in the neighbourhood of Mamoun and shot him dead, al-Jaburi said.

In another attack, gunmen shot and killed a soldier in a garage.

Separately, a jewellery store owner was shot dead in an armed robbery by a group of unknown gunmen in the city of al-Kut, some 170 kilometres south of Baghdad.

Security forces reportedly arrested one of the robbers.

A Sunni preacher was also injured in an assassination attempt in the area of Balad, 60 km north of Baghdad.

A group of gunmen opened fire on Sheikh Ismail al-Arabi, head of the al-Rawashed mosque, near his home.

Al-Arabi was taken to hospital with light injuries, security sources said.