17 people killed in separate attacks in Iraq

A total of 17 people were killed and 14 others wounded in separate attacks across Iraq on Wednesday, police and medical sources said. In Salahudin province, two people were killed and two others wounded when two roadside bombs went off in quick succession in the northern part of the provincial capital city of Tikrit, some 170 km north of Baghdad, a provincial police source told Xinhua on condition of anonymity. In a separate incident, a river police patrol clashed with gunmen on the bank of Tigris River in the eastern part of Tikrit, leaving a policeman and five gunmen killed, the source said. Meanwhile, a soldier was killed and three others wounded when a roadside bomb struck their patrol in Tarmiyah area, some 30 km north of Baghdad, an Interior Ministry source told Xinhua. Separately, a civilian was killed and two others wounded in a roadside bomb blast in the town of Yousifiyah, some 25 km south of Baghdad, the source said. In Anbar province, a leader of a militant group believed to be linked to the Islamic State of Iraq and Levant, an al-Qaida breakaway group in Iraq, was killed with two of his aides during a raid by an Iraqi army force in the city of Heet, some 160 km west of Baghdad, a provincial police source said. In addition, two people were killed and five wounded by artillery and mortar shelling on several neighborhoods in the militant-seized city of Fallujah, some 50 km west of Baghdad, a medical source from the city hospital said. Anbar province has been the scene of fierce clashes that flared up after Iraqi police dismantled an anti-government protest site outside Ramadi in late December last year. In Iraq's eastern province of Diyala, two intelligence officers were critically wounded when gunmen using silenced weapons attacked their car near the provincial capital city of Baquba, some 65 km northeast of Baghdad, a provincial police source said. Also in Diyala, two civilians were shot dead by gunmen in two attacks near Baquba, the source said. Iraq is witnessing some of its worst violence in recent years. According to the UN Assistance Mission for Iraq, a total of 8,868 Iraqis, including 7,818 civilians and civilian police personnel, were killed in 2013, the highest annual death toll in years.