10 killed in Baghdad violence

Bomb blasts, rocket and gunfire killed at least 10 people and injured 23 in the Iraqi capital today, police said.

A roadside bomb exploded this morning in a busy west Baghdad street, killing at least six people and inuring 12, said police Lt. Thayer Mahmoud.

The blast targeted a police patrol in the mostly Sunni Qadissiyah neighbourhood. Three policemen were among the dead and three were injured, Mahmoud said. The rest of the victims were civilian bystanders.

Another bombing near the Mustansiriyah University in east Baghdad injured five policemen, said police 1st Lt. Mohammed Khaiyoon.

Drive-by gunmen fired on a car in the western Biyaqa neighbourhood, killing its three occupants, including a member of President Jalal Talabani’s Patriotic Union of Kurdistan party, said police 1st Lt. Muataz Salaheddin.

More gunmen in a speeding car fired into a crowd of workmen in Amariyah, another troubled west Baghdad neighbourhood, injuring four of them, said police Lt. Thayer Mahmoud.

And a rocket landed near a house in the western Jamiah neighbourhood, killing one occupant and injuring two others, police Lt. Col. Hassan Chaloob said.