Violence, bombings kill dozens in Iraq

BAGHDAD, March 6 (UPI) -- At least 17 people, including five police officers, died and 43 were wounded in bombing and other attacks across Iraq, security officials said.

In Kirkuk, two car bombs detonated, killing five police officers and wounding 17 civilians and police, China's state-run news agency Xinhua reported.

A car bomb detonated near a sports complex in Bani Saad, a town west of the Diyala provincial capital of Baquba, killing three people and wounding 20 others, a provincial police official said.

Police also reported nine people died and six others were wounded in several attacks in central and northern areas of the country Tuesday, Xinhua said.

Tariq Harrosh, a leader of a government-backed Awakening Council group, was killed by gunmen riding a motorcycle in front of his house in a western suburb of Baghdad, police said.

Officials also said gunmen broke into the house of an Awakenings leader in al-Siniyah, killing his mother and father. The leader was critically injured.

Two people were killed and a third was injured when two gunmen on a motorcycle opened fire on the trio in a village near Tuz-Khurmato, east of Tikrit, a provincial police official said said.

In Baghdad, gunmen attacked a real estate office, killing two people and wounding another, an Interior Ministry official told Xinhua on condition of anonymity.

Two civilians were shot and killed in separate attacks in the al-Saidiyah district in southern Baghdad, the official said.

Meanwhile, a convoy that included the mayor of al-Qayyara, a town south of Mosul, was attacked while on the main road south of the town, authorities said. The mayor and two of his bodyguards were seriously wounded.

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