10 killed, 37 injured in a wave of violence in Iraq

Ten people were killed and 37 others wounded in separate incidents of bombings and shootings in central and eastern Iraq Wednesday, police said.

Three members of a government-backed paramilitary group, known as Awakening Council, were killed and 13 wounded in a car bomb explosion in the town of Garma near the city of Fallujah, some 50 km west of Baghdad, a police source told Xinhua on condition of anonymity.

One of those killed was the leader of a group whose members were gathering at a military base in the town when the blast occurred, the source said.

The Awakening Council group, also known as Sons of Iraq, consists of armed groups, including some powerful anti-US Sunni insurgent groups who turned their rifles against the al-Qaida network after the latter resorted to indiscriminate killings against both Shiite and Sunni Muslim communities.

Also in the town, gunmen attacked police and exchanged fire with them, killing a policeman and wounding another, the source added.

Meanwhile, a civilian was killed and two others were wounded by sniper shots in Nu'imiyah area, south of Fallujah, he said.

Elsewhere, gunmen attacked a police patrol in the town of Baiji, some 220 km north of Baghdad, killing a police officer and a policeman, a police source told Xinhua.

In Baghdad, five people were wounded when a car bomb ripped through al-Husseiniyah district in the northeastern part of the capital, an interior ministry source told Xinhua.

In northern Iraq, a roadside bomb struck a police patrol in the city of Kirkuk, some 250 km north of Baghdad, destroying a police vehicle and wounding three policemen aboard, police said.

In Iraq's eastern province of Diyala, gunmen using silenced weapons shot dead a cleric of a Sunni mosque in the provincial capital city of Baquba, some 65 km northeast of Baghdad, a provincial police source told Xinhua on condition of anonymity.

In a separate incident, a civilian was killed and 11 wounded in a roadside bomb explosion late Tuesday night at a coffee shop at a village located some 40 km northeast of Baquba, the source said.

Also in the province, a civilian was shot dead in the morning by gunmen in western Baquba, while a policeman and a civilian were wounded in a roadside bomb explosion in the town of Kan'an, some 20 km northeast of Baquba, the source added.

Violence is still common in the Iraqi cities despite the dramatic decrease since its peak in 2006 and 2007 when the country was engulfed in sectarian killings.