11 killed in Iraq bomb attacks

Six soldiers and five Islamic State (IS) militants were killed and 42 people wounded in a number of bomb attacks in central Iraq Tuesday, security sources said.

The deadliest attack occurred in Salahudin province when a suicide bomber blew up his explosives-laden car inside an army base near a main road south of the city of Samarra, some 120 km north of Iraq's capital Baghdad, a provincial security source told Xinhua news agency on condition of anonymity.

The huge blast killed at least six soldiers and wounded 27 others, apart from destroying several military vehicles, the source said.

In Iraq's eastern province of Diyala, an army airstrike hit a convoy of vehicles carrying IS militants in the western part of Diyala, leaving an IS leader and four of his aides dead, according to a provincial security source.

Near Baghdad, a booby-trapped car ripped through the town of Mahmoudiyah, some 30 km south of the capital, injuring nine people and damaging several nearby buildings and shops, a police source told Xinhua.

In a separate incident, six people were wounded when a roadside bomb went off at a village near the town of Madain, some 30 km southeast of Baghdad, the source said.

Iraq has been witnessing some of the worst violence in years. Terrorism and violence killed at least 12,282 civilians and injured 23,126 others in 2014, the deadliest year since the sectarian violence started in the 2006-2007 period, according to a recent UN report.