8 killed in attacks in Iraq

Eight people were killed and 24 wounded in separate bombings and shootings across Iraq on Saturday, police said. In northern Iraq, three people were killed and ten wounded in a roadside bomb explosion at a busy vegetable market in central the city of Mosul, some 400 km north of the Iraqi capital of Baghdad, a local police source told Xinhua on condition of anonymity. Separately, Iraqi police carried out an operation on an insurgent hideout in eastern Mosul, arresting five suspects and seizing a factory for improvised explosive device (IED), the source said. Near Baghdad, a civilian was killed and nine others were wounded in a roadside bomb explosion at the Sunni town of Mashahda, some 40 km north of Baghdad, a police source said. In Iraq's western province of Anbar, a sniper shot dead a policeman at a checkpoint in central the provincial capital city of Ramadi, some 110 km west of Baghdad, a provincial police source anonymously told Xinhua. In a separate incident, a policeman was killed and another wounded when gunmen in a speedy car opened fire on them at a checkpoint in Ramadi, the source said. Meanwhile, two people were critically wounded when a sticky bomb attached to their car detonated at a village near the city of Fallujah, some 50 km west of Baghdad, the source added. In eastern Iraq, two civilians were killed in separate attacks by gunmen near Diyala's provincial capital city of Baquba, some 65 km northeast of Baghdad, a provincial police source said. Also in the province, a roadside bomb struck the car of a member of a government backed Sahwa paramilitary group at a village near Baquba, wounding the Sahwa member and his relative who was with him in the car, the source said. Iraq is witnessing its worst eruption of violence in recent years. According to the UN Assistance Mission for Iraq, almost 7, 650 Iraqis were killed and over 17,370 others injured from January to November this year.