22 killed in Iraq violence

Up to 22 people were killed and 51 wounded in separate shootings and bombings across Iraq Thursday, police said.

In one attack, 11 people were killed and 35 wounded when four roadside bombs exploded in quick succession in a crowded marketplace in Sabie al-Bour suburb in the northern part of Iraq's capital Baghdad, an interior ministry source told Xinhua on condition of anonymity.

The blasts destroyed many nearby shops and stalls and left several civilian cars burning, the source said.

Earlier in the day, police said that seven people were killed and 15 wounded when a roadside bomb ripped through a popular market in Doura district in southern Baghdad, damaging several nearby shops and stalls.

In Iraq's eastern province of Diyala, an employee working in the provincial Diyala satellite channel was gunned down by armed men.

A provincial government employee was wounded in a separate attack by gunmen in the provincial capital city of Baquba, some 65 km northeast of Baghdad, a provincial police source told Xinhua.

A government-backed Sahwa paramilitary fighter was killed when a roadside bomb was detonated near his house in a residential area located some 10 km west of Baquba, the source said.

In northern Iraq, two fighters of the Sahwa paramilitary group were shot dead by gunmen who stormed their checkpoint in Shirqat area, some 280 km north of Baghdad, a local police source told Xinhua.

The Sahwa militia, also known as the Awakening Council or the 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 indiscriminate killings by the latter of both Shias and Sunnis.

Iraq is witnessing its worst eruption of violence in recent years which raises fears that the country is sliding back to the full blown civil conflict that peaked in 2006 and 2007 when the monthly death toll sometimes exceeded 3,000.

The UN Assistance Mission for Iraq said earlier this month that almost 5,000 civilians were killed and 12,000 injured in Iraq from January to August this year.