36 killed, 53 wounded in Iraq violence

As many as 36 people were killed and 53 wounded in separate attacks across Iraq Wednesday, police and medical source said.

In Anbar province, two suicide bombers blew up their explosive- laden cars into two checkpoints at the entrance of a compound including Anbar Operations Command in the northern part of Ramadi city, some 110 km from Baghdad, Xinhua quoted a provincial police source as saying.

The blasts killed five soldiers and three policemen, and wounded seven others, the source added.

In a separate incident, gunmen attacked a joint checkpoint of policemen and members of a government-backed Sahwa paramilitary group in al-Houze district in central Ramadi, killed three policemen and injuring two policemen and four Sahwa members,the source said.

Near Ramadi, a suicide bomber blew up his explosive vest at an army checkpoint in Al Jazeera area, just north of Ramadi, and killed four soldiers and wounded two, the source added.

Separately, 16 civilians were killed and 19 wounded during the past 24 hours by air strikes and artillery shelling on several neighbourhoods in the besieged city of Fallujah, some 50 km from Baghdad, a medical source from the city hospital said.

In Baghdad, several mortar rounds landed on an army base in the northern suburb of Sabi al-Bour, leaving two soldiers killed and ten others wounded, a police source said.

In Sabi al-Bour suburb, a roadside bomb ripped through a popular market, killing three civilians and wounding nine, the source said.