9 killed, 43 wounded in attacks in Iraq

Baghdad, May 30 – At least 9 people were killed and 43 others wounded in shootings and bomb attacks, including four car bombings, in central and western Iraq on Thursday, the police said.

A car bomb parked near the entrance of the local government compound in Anbar's provincial capital of Ramadi, some 110 km west of Baghdad, detonated in the morning near a convoy of vehicles carrying the provincial governor Qassim al-Fahdawi, a provincial police source told Xinhua on condition of anonymity.

Al-Fahdawi, who was heading to his work in the compound, escaped the blast unharmed, but the huge explosion destroyed one of his vehicles and wounded two of his bodyguards aboard and three bystanders, the source said.

In a separate incident, two border policemen were shot dead by gunmen who ambushed their vehicle on the main highway in the desert area between Ramadi and Jordan, the source added.

Also on Thursday, a car bomb went off near a police patrol in Karrada district in the southern central part of the Iraqi capital of Baghdad, killing a civilian and wounding two policemen and seven civilians, an interior ministry source anonymously told Xinhua.

Earlier, the source said that a total of six people were killed and 29 wounded in two car bombs and two roadside bomb attacks in different parts of Baghdad in the morning.

Thursday attacks are part of almost daily waves of massive bomb attacks in Baghdad and some Iraqi cities that killed and wounded hundreds of people.

On Wednesday, bombings and clashes in the country killed at least 26 people and wounded some 80 others.

Violence and sporadic bomb attacks are still common in Iraqi cities despite the dramatic decrease in violence since its peak in 2006 and 2007, when the country was engulfed in sectarian killings.

Xinhua