As many as 21 people were killed and seven injured in violent attacks that mainly targetted security force in different parts of Iraq Thursday, police said.
In north Iraq, a suicide bomber blew up his explosive-laden car at an army base in a village near Mosul city, some 400 km from Baghdad. A soldier was killed and three wounded, Xinhua reported.
Iraqi security forces foiled an attempt by Al Qaeda militants to storm a police base in south Mosul. The troops shot dead a suicide bomber and blew up his car bomb before he could reach his target.
In Anbar province, a battalion commander and five soldiers were killed in fierce clashes with gunmen in Albu- Bali, east of the provincial capital city Ramadi, about 110 km west of Baghdad. Three gunmen were also killed.
In a separate incident, a suicide bomber rammed his explosive- laden car into an army checkpoint and blew it up on a bridge in the city of Rawa, some 165 km west of Ramadi. The attack killed four soldiers and wounded two others, destroying parts of the bridge.
Separately, a policeman was shot dead near his house in the western part of the city of Tikrit, the capital of Salahudin province.
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In the early hours of the day, gunmen broke into the house of a member of the government-backed Sahwa paramilitary group, and killed him and his wife.
In Baghdad, a car bomb was detonated outside the house of a defence ministry officer in Zaiyounah district in east-central part of the capital, causing damages to the house without human casualty.
In Diyala province, gunmen shot dead an owner of a restaurant in the city of Maqdadiyah.
In another incident, gunmen shot dead a member of the government-backed Sahwa paramilitary group in the town of Wajihiyah.
Meantime, an intelligence officer was gunned down by armed men when he was driving at a road intersection in Baquba
Also in the province, a policeman and his wife were wounded when gunmen blew up a bomb in their house in the town of Buhruz.