11 killed in insurgent attacks in Iraq

A total of 11 people were killed and some 50 others wounded on Saturday in separate attacks across Iraq, including a suicide bombing in the country's capital Baghdad, security sources said.
The deadliest attack was carried out by a suicide bomber who drove an explosive-laden car near the intelligence headquarters in al-Masbah district in southern Baghdad and blew it up, leaving up to four people killed and some 35 others wounded, an Interior Ministry source told Xinhua on condition of anonymity.
The blast caused damages to the entrance of the headquarters and several cars parking around, the source added.
Also in the Iraqi capital, an army officer was killed and four soldiers wounded when a roadside bomb detonated near their patrol in Doura district, the source added.
Late on Friday, gunmen affiliated to the Islamic State militant group, an al-Qaida offshoot, carried out an attack to seize the town of Duluiyah in Salahudin province, some 90 km north of Baghdad, but were repelled by local police and Sunni tribal fighters, a provincial police source said.
The battle, which continued till Saturday dawn, left at least four Islamic militants killed and 11 others wounded, the source said.
Meantime in the province of Diyala, two leaders of Islamic State militant group were killed when a police commando force raided their hideout in the mountainous area outside the town of Himreen, about 120 km northeast of Baghdad, Shimary added.
The security situation in Iraq began to drastically deteriorate since June 10 when bloody clashes broke out between Iraqi security forces and hundreds of Sunni militants who took control of the country's northern city of Mosul and later seized swathes of territories after the Iraqi security forces abandoned their posts in Nineveh and other predominantly Sunni provinces.