17 killed in separate attacks across Iraq

Baghdad: At least 17 people were killed in separate attacks across Iraq on Wednesday, police said.

Eleven people were killed and 15 others got wounded when a roadside bomb exploded Wednesday evening near some shops in Al-Mafraq area, just west of Diyala province's capital city of Baquba, some 65 km northeast of Baghdad, Xinhua reported citing a police source.

A judge and his driver were shot dead by gunmen after he left a court in Siniyah town, some 210 km north of Baghdad, said another police source who did not wish to be namned.

In another incident, a traffic police officer was killed when a bomb attached to his car detonated at the entrance of the traffic police directorate in eastern Baghdad, a police source said.

A suspected Al-Qaida leader was killed and one of his aides was arrested by Iraqi security forces in an operation in Imam Wais area northeast of Baquba, a police source said.

Iraqi security forces killed two gunmen and captured eight others in a pre-dawn security operation in Al-Udhaim area, some 60 km north of Baquba, the source added.

Iraq is witnessing its worst eruption of violence in recent years, which raises fears that the country is sliding back to a full-blown civil conflict that peaked in 2006 and 2007, when monthly death toll sometimes exceeded 3,000.

The UN Assistance Mission for Iraq recently reported that over 1,000 Iraqis were killed and more than 2,300 wounded in acts of terrorism and violence in July, the deadliest month in more than five years.