At least 47 people were killed and over 70 wounded Thursday
in separate attacks witnessed in different parts of Iraq, including three
deadly bombings in capital city of Baghdad, police said.
In the worst incident in Baghdad's Sadr City, a
booby-trapped motorcycle exploded at a popular market, leaving at least 32
people dead and 56 injured. In another incident, an improvised explosive device
struck a minibus, killing five civilians and wounding two, Xinhua reported.
In a separate incident, a roadside bomb struck a bus in the
neighbourhood of Shaab in northeast Baghdad, killing a passenger and wounding
three.
In Tarmiya area, some 30 km from Baghdad, two Iraqi soldiers
were killed and three wounded when a car bomb targetted an army patrol. Another
similar attack injured three soldiers earlier in the day.
In a Sunni-dominated province of Salahudin, gunmen attacked
a checkpoint manned by members of a government-backed Sahwa paramilitary group
in Shirqat city, leaving two group members killed.
In Diyala province, police found a body, riddled with
bullets and dumped near a river, of an ex-officer of former president Saddam
Hussain's army. He was kidnapped earlier from near his house.
Also in the province, unidentified gunmen shot dead a
civilian in Maqdadiyah and fled the scene.
In Anbar province, gunmen attacked an army checkpoint in the
provincial capital of Ramadi, some 110 km from Baghdad, killing two soldiers
and injuring five, local police said.
In the south of the militant-seized city of Fallujah, some
50 km west of Baghdad, snipers shot dead a civilian while driving his car.
The UN Assistance Mission for Iraq said a total of 8,868
Iraqis, including 7,818 civilians and civilian police personnel, were killed in
2013, the highest annual death toll in recent years.
