Dozens killed in Iraq attacks

Earlier in the day in Baghdad, a bomber blew up a vehicle outside a police headquarters, killing five people and wounding 12, a security official said.

 

Elsewhere in the capital, a former brigadier-general in Saddam Hussein’s army was shot dead in the Dura neighbourhood, and three civilians were killed in two separate roadside bombings.

 

The two blasts left 10 people wounded, security and medical sources said.

 

At least one person was killed and six wounded in a car bombing in the southwestern neighbourhood of al-Bayaa, the site of several recent attacks, while one person was killed and nine wounded by three mortar rounds in al-Shaab neighbourhood.

 

Bodies

  

The bodies of another three people killed in a gunfight in the capital were brought to al-Yarmuk hospital in west Baghdad, the hospital said.

 

A man is treated at al-Yarmuk hospital [AFP]

In Mosul, the authorities arrested 61 suspected fighters following an overnight shootout at a police station.

A remotely detonated car bomb exploded near some reinforcements who were racing to the scene, killing one policeman and wounding two.

In other parts of the country 77 more people were arrested.

US death

Five US soldiers were killed in separate attacks in Baghdad and west of the capital over weekend, the military announced on Monday, pushing the death toll past 100 in the deadliest month for the US so far this year.

Two attacks occurred in eastern Baghdad, a predominantly Shia area where US and Iraqi forces have stepped up operations as part of the security crackdown that began on February 14.

A marine also was killed in al-Anbar province.