Eight killed in new wave of violence

Insurgents used bomb attacks and a drive-by shooting to kill at least eight Iraqis and wound 15 others today, including a police officer and his four children who died when an explosion set fire to their vehicle in northern Iraq, officials said.

In one attack, a suicide car bomber rammed into a US military convoy at in Kirkuk, 180 miles north of Baghdad, killing two civilians and wounding 13, said police Capt Farhad Talabani.

He said six civilian cars were damaged by the blast. A US military spokesman in Baghdad said he had no immediate information about the attack or whether it had caused American casualties.

In Tikrit, 80 miles north of Baghdad, a roadside bomb hit a civilian car being driven by police Lt Colonel Haitham Akram, said police 1st Lt Udai Ahmed. The blast set the car on fire, killing Akram and his four children travelling with him, Ahmed said.

In Baghdad, a roadside bomb in the Dora neighbourhood wounded two Iraqis, and a drive-by shooting in Baqouba, 35 miles northeast of Baghdad, killed police 1st Lt Falih Hassan Khalil, authorities said.