9 killed, 77 wounded in bomb attacks in Iraq

Nine people were killed and 77 wounded Thursday in separate bomb attacks in Iraq, including a wave of car bombs in the capital of Baghdad, security sources said. In Baghdad, eight car bombs ripped through the capital around noon, leaving two civilians killed and 44 wounded. One of the car bombs exploded near a wholesale market in Jamila district in eastern Baghdad, killing a civilian and wounding seven others, a police source told Xinhua on condition of anonymity. Meanwhile, two car bombs went off in quick succession at a car wash business in Karrada district in downtown Baghdad, wounding 11 people, the source said. Another car bomb detonated in al-Shaab district in northeastern Baghdad, wounding three people. A fifth car bomb exploded in Camp Sarah district in southern part of the capital and wounded four, the source added. Six more people were wounded when another car bomb ripped through al-Hurriyah district in northwestern Baghdad, the source said, adding that another car bomb detonated in Batool district in eastern Baghdad and left a civilian killed and seven others wounded. An eighth car bomb went off in Kadhmiyah district in northern Baghdad, wounding six people. Brigadier General Saad Maan, the spokesman of Baghdad Operations Command, put the toll in a statement at two killed and 28 wounded by the car bombings in the capital. In Salahudin province, at least three people were killed and 17 wounded when a car bomb went off in front of a house in the city of Tuz-Khurmato, a provincial police source anonymously told Xinhua. Elsewhere, gunmen shot dead a man and his son at a livestock market in western the city of Mosul, a local police source said. In Iraq's eastern province of Diyala, nine people were wounded in a car bomb explosion in the town of al-Khalis near the provincial capital city of Baquba, a provincial police source told Xinhua. In a separate incident, a roadside bomb struck a police patrol in the city of Sa'diyah, leaving a policeman killed and three others wounded, the source said. Meanwhile, Brigadier General Abdul Rahman Mohammed, head of investigation department of Diyala's intelligence office, was critically wounded when a sticky bomb attached to his car detonated while he was driving in Baquba, the source added. Also in the province, a police force shot dead a gunman during a search operation near Baquba, while three people from one family were wounded in a roadside bomb explosion near their car in the town of Buhruz, the source said. The attacks came one day after a wave of bomb attacks across Iraq, mostly in Baghdad, that killed 48 people and wounded 119. Iraq is witnessing 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 recent years.