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10 killed, 30 wounded in Iraq's Diyala

2011-08-15 16:26

BAQUBA, Iraq - Ten people were killed and 30 others wounded in separate bomb and gunfire attacks, including a car bomb, in Iraq's eastern province of Diyala on Monday, a provincial police source said.

A booby-trapped car ripped through the town of Bani Sa'ad near the provincial capital city of Baquba, some 65 km northeast of Baghdad, killing five people and wounding eight, the source told Xinhua on condition of anonymity.

In a separate incident, gunmen with their assault rifles attacked an Iraqi army checkpoint in northeastern Baquba and killed four soldiers before they fled the scene, the source said.

Meanwhile, a car bomb parked near the passport office in northeastern Baquba, went off among a crowd of people who gathered outside the office, wounding 12 of them, the source added.

In northern the province, a policeman was killed by gunmen in the town of Edheim, some 60 km north of Baquba, the source said, adding that also in the town, a leader of a local Awakening Council group was wounded in a roadside bomb explosion near his house.

The Awakening Council group or al-Sahwa in Arabic consists of armed groups, including some powerful anti-US Sunni insurgent groups, who fought al-Qaida group militants in the Sunni Arab areas during the years after the US-led invasion of Iraq.

Separately, five policemen were injured in a roadside bomb explosion near their patrol in the town of Kanaan, some 20 km east of Baquba.

Also in the province, five people were wounded in separate incident across the province, the source added.

Diyala province, which stretches from the eastern edges of Baghdad to the Iranian border east of the country, has long been a stronghold for al-Qaida militants and other insurgent groups since the US-led invasion of Iraq in 2003.

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