Car bomb kills Iraq police

A high-ranking officer is said to be among the 17 killed in Ramadi.

Hit, al-Anbar, Iraq — Anbar in western Iraq has been plagued by violence

Cleric targeted

Two suicide car bombs also exploded near the home of a tribal leader in the Abu Ghraib district west of Baghdad, killing the man’s son and several other people, a provincial official said.

Sheikh Thahir al-Dari, whose home was targeted, is the head of the al-Zobaie tribe and belongs to a group opposed to al-Qaeda.

Ahmed al-Dulaimi, head of the provincial council media office in Anbar, said the sheikh’s son was killed in Tuesday’s double car bombing and there were several more casualties.

Salam al-Zobaie, Iraq’s deputy prime minister, belongs to al-Dari’s tribe.

The deputy prime minister survived an assassination bid last week.

Al-Zobaie was wounded in the attack at his home in Baghdad.

An aide said the suicide bomber was one of his own guards.

More violence

Mortar rounds slammed into a Shia area in Baghdad on Tuesday, killing at least four people and wounding 14, while sectarian clashes erupted for a fourth consecutive day south of the capital.

The mortar attack occurred in Abu Dasheer, a Shia enclave in the Sunni-dominated Dora neighbourhood in southern Baghdad. Police said those killed included two children, a woman and a man.

In Iskandariyah, 50km south of Baghdad, suspected Shia fighters broke into a Sunni mosque and planted explosives that damaged the gate and a fence, the police said.

Clashes broke out about an hour later, leaving four Sunni fighters and one Shia fighter wounded.

The clashes were followed by a mortar attack on a nearby Shia mosque. The rounds landed in a courtyard and did not damage the mosque, although a pedestrian was wounded.

A Shia man and his three sons also were wounded when a mortar round struck their house in Haswa, about 5km east of Iskandariyah.

Source: News Agencies