38 killed, 141 injured in Iraq attacks

A total of 38 people, including two senior police officers, were killed and 141 wounded in separate bomb attacks across Iraq Sunday, security sources said.

The deadliest attack occurred before noon in Iraq's Diyala province when two explosive-laden cars were detonated, Xinhua quoted a provincial source as saying.

The incident was followed by more violence when a suicide bomber blew up himself outside a police headquarter in Qara-Tabba town, about 175 km from Baghdad.

"Our latest reports said the number of casualties reached 33, including the suicide bomber, 11 Kurdish security members and two members of town council," the source said, adding around 135 people were wounded, including displaced women and children.

In Anbar province, a roadside bomb struck the convoy of the provincial police chief while moving in Ramadi city, killing the chief of al-Fursan police station in Ramadi and wounding two policemen, the source added.

The incident occurred in Abu Risha area, the stronghold of the tribal leader, Ahmed Abu Risha, who heads the government-backed paramilitary group, the "Awakening Councils".

In Salahudin province, a Shiite militia man was killed and three wounded when a makeshift bomb exploded near their vehicle near Dujail town, some 60 km from Baghdad, a security source said.

The Shiite militiamen are part of thousands of volunteers who responded to an appeal made by the country's revered Shiite cleric in Iraq, Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, who called on Iraqis to "take up arms to defend their country" against the Sunni insurgent groups, including the Islamic State militant group.

Separately, IS militants fired mortar rounds on al-Jubour area in Dhuluiyah town, some 90 km from Baghdad, killing two children and wounding a man, a police source said.