Deadly violence hits central Iraq

At least 11 people killed in a string of attacks in Baghdad and Diyala province amid nationwide surge of violence. Last Modified: 30 Apr 2011 06:18

At least 11 people were killed in a string of bombings and shootings in central Iraq, a day after a suicide bomberkilled 10 worshippers in a Shia mosque. The violence on Friday underlined the security concerns Iraq still faces as American troops prepare to leave the country by the end of this year. In Baghdad, a bomb went off in a predominantly Shia neighbourhood, killing three police commandos and one civilian and wounding 24 policemen and five civilians, police and medical officials said. As police arrived on the scene to investigate, a second bomb exploded. Armed groups often use such staged blasts to lure in security and medical personnel who arrive on the scene to help and then fall victim to the subsequent blast. In the mixed Sunni-Shia province of Diyala, gunmen stormed the home of Bashir Mutlak, a Sunni imam in Imam Waiss village, 50km northeast of the provincial capital of Baqouba on Friday morning, police and medical officials said. The gunmen killed the imam, his wife and their 11-year-old daughter at the family home, an army colonel in the Diyala security command centre said. In the town of Buhruz, a former Saddam Hussein stronghold also in Diyala, four Sunni brothers aged between 20 and 35 were shot dead by gunmen wearing police uniforms, according to an army officer. The gunmen broke into a house and shot and killed the four brothers who worked in an anti-al-Qaeda militia. All the officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorised to speak to the media. Diyala province has been a hotbed of the insurgency and at one point in 2006 was proposed as the future capital of al-Qaida's Islamic State of Iraq. Since then, the situation has calmed considerably, but a volatile ethnic mix of Sunnis, Shia, Kurds and Turkmen help make it one of the least stable provinces in the country. Iraq's prime minister maintains the country is able to provide for its own internal security, but US officials say Iraq must decide soon whether to ask any of the remaining American forces to stay past their December 31 departure date. (source:english.aljazeera.net) =====================================================