10 killed, 61 injured in Iraq attacks

At least 10 people were killed and 61 wounded in separate bomb attacks, including a coordinated suicide bombing, in Iraq Wednesday, police said.

The deadliest attack occurred in northern Iraq, where gunmen and suicide bombers attacked a police intelligence office in Kirkuk city, about 250 km from Baghdad. At least five people were killed and 53 wounded, many of them security members, Xinhua reported citing a police source.

Earlier in the day, a bomb detonated inside a civilian car carrying four men on a main road near the Kirkuk city, killing one of them and wounding the other three, the source said, adding that the security forces arrested the wounded, who appeared to be members of an insurgent cell.

Elsewhere, Iraqi security forces killed a local Al Qaeda leader and his aide in an overnight operation in Fallujah city, some 50 km from Baghdad, an Interior Ministry spokesperson said in a statement.

"This criminal has been sentenced to death seven times and is also one of the fugitives from the Abu Ghraib prison, and is responsible for a range of terrorist acts and assassinations against civilians in Fallujah and other areas," Brigadier General Sa'ad Ma'an said.

Separately, a soldier was killed and four others wounded in a roadside bomb explosion near their patrol in the city of al-Qaim, some 330 km northwest of Baghdad, a police source said.

Meanwhile, a policeman was killed and another wounded when a roadside bomb struck a police patrol in Fallujah city, police said.

According to the UN Assistance Mission for Iraq, almost 7, 650 Iraqis were killed and over 17,370 injured from January to November this year.