12 killed in attacks across Iraq

Twelve people were killed and 39 others wounded in separate attacks across Iraq Sunday, police said.

Five people were killed and 15 injured when two suicide bombers wearing explosive vests tried to break into the Shiite college of Imam Kadhim in Ur district of Baghdad, Xinhua quoted a police source as saying.

One of the attackers blew himself up at the entrance of the college while the other one was shot dead by the guards, the source added. Three policemen were among those killed.

In Iraq's Muthanna province, three people were killed and 20 others wounded when two car bombs went off near the provincial capital city of Samawa, some 270 km south of Baghdad, police said.

In Babil province, three people were killed and four others wounded when a car bomb detonated at the al-Asriyah village in the provincial capital city of Hilla, some 100 km south of Baghdad.

Elsewhere, an army officer was killed when a sticky bomb attached to his car exploded while he was driving in the city of Saadiyah, some 120 km northeast of Baghdad.

The violence came less than two weeks ahead of landmark parliamentary elections on April 30, the first in the country since the withdrawal of US troops in late 2011.