12 killed in attacks in Iraq

Twelve people were killed and 14 wounded in separate shooting and bombing attacks across Iraq Sunday, police said.

In northern Iraq, at least four people were killed and 14 wounded in the afternoon when three car bombs detonated almost simultaneously in separate neighbourhoods in Kirkuk city, some 250 km north of here, a police source told Xinhua.

The toll could rise as ambulances and civilian vehicles evacuated the injured to nearby hospitals and medical centres, the source said.

In Iraq's eastern province of Diyala, the head of a city council and two of councillors were killed by gunmen who attacked their convoy near the town of Wajihiyah, a provincial police source said.

In northern suburb of al-Rashdiyah of Baghdad, gunmen killed an ex-officer of Saddam Hussein's former army and his wife, police said.

Gunmen also shot dead two people in the Shiite district of Sadr city in eastern Baghdad.

Also in the capital, a civilian was killed when a sticky bomb attached to his car went off in Iskan district in the western part of the city.

Iraq is witnessing its worst violence in recent years. According to the UN Assistance Mission for Iraq, a total of 8,868 Iraqis, including 7,818 civilians and police personnel, were killed in 2013, which is the highest annual death toll for years.