10 Killed In Iraq Violence

Baghdad: At least 10 people were killed and nine wounded in separate violent attacks in Iraq Sunday, police said.

Unidentified gunmen broke into the house of a man in the early hours of the day in Latifiyah town, some 30 km from Baghdad, and stabbed him, his wife and four of his sons to death with knives, Xinhua quoted a interior ministry source as saying.

In Anbar province, a leader of a local government-backed Sahwa paramilitary group was killed in a roadside bomb explosion in Ramadi, some 110 km west of Baghdad, a provincial police source said.

Separately, gunmen clashed with members of a government-backed Sahwa paramilitary group in the town of Khaldiyah, some 80 km west of Baghdad, killing a Sahwa member and wounding three others, the source said.

Meanwhile, a soldier was killed and two wounded when a roadside bomb struck their patrol in east of Ramadi, the source added.

Elsewhere, a suicide bomber tried to drive his booby-trapped tanker into a police commando headquarters in the city of Tikrit, some 170 km from Baghdad. But the guards opened fire on his tanker and blew it up before reaching its target, leaving at least one policeman wounded, a police source said.

In Diyala province, a civilian was killed and two wounded when a sticky bomb attached to a minibus was detonated near the city of Khalis, a police source said.

In a separate incident, gunmen using silenced weapons wounded a policeman outside Baquba, the source said.

Also in the province, a security force captured a leading figure in the Shiite militia of Asa'b Ahl al-Haq in the city of Maqdadiyah, some 40 km northeast of Baquba, the source said.

According to the UN Assistance Mission for Iraq, a total of 8,868 Iraqis, including 7,818 civilians and civilian police personnel, were killed in 2013, the highest annual toll in years.