15 dead in Iraqi violence

2006-05-27 16:42

Baghdad - At least 15 people were killed in a series of attacks in Iraq on Saturday.

The restive city of Baquba, where seven people died, beared the brunt of the violence.

The United States military said a marine was killed "in enemy action" in the western province of Al-Anbar on Friday.

According to an AFP count, based on Pentagon figures, the death brings the number of US military dead since the March 2003 invasion to 2 465.

In Baquba, gunmen shot the convoy of Kahtan al-Bawi, chief office administrator for the police and brother of city chief of police Gassan al-Bawi.

Al-Bawi and two other officers were killed.

Five workers were killed when gunmen opened fire on their workshop in Baquba, north of Baghdad.

The workers were repairing car tires and welding door and window frames, said police.

Nearby, gunmen killed a former Baath-era police officer and a relative as they travelled in their car.

Police officers shot dead

Three police officers were wounded in a roadside bombing west of the city.

The director of the Baquba branch of the Iraqi association for the defence of human rights, Hadi Abdul Mohsim, was wounded in a gun attack on his vehicle north of the city.

In Baghdad, a police officer was killed and another wounded when a bomb was set off against their patrol in the upscale Mansur district, said an interior ministry source.

Two police officers were shot dead in separate incidents in Tikrit, the hometown of former Iraqi president Saddam Hussein, and another in Kirkuk.

In Samarra, a merchant in the city's central Bazaar was killed by gunmen.

In the Abu Ghraib area west of Baghdad, four people were injured when a roadside bomb exploded.

Clashes between gunmen and an Iraqi army patrol in the capital's western Al-Jamia area left a soldier and a civilian wounded.

A spokesperson for British forces in Basra said 10 suspected insurgents were arrested in the southern city for possession of automatic rifles and explosives.

- AFP