2ND At least 13 killed, 11 wounded in Iraq

dpa German Press Agency
Published: Saturday October 7, 2006

Baghdad- Ten Iraqis including two soldiers were killed and six injured Saturday in a suicide attack in Telafar, 450 kilometres north-west of Baghdad. Reports had earlier put the death toll in the blast at four. Police said a suicide bomber had driven his explosives-laden vehicle into an Iraqi military checkpoint in the Salam district.

Four of the injured were soldiers, however there was no information on their condition. They have been moved to a nearby hospital.

In Kirkuk, Iraqi authorities deployed 14,000 security elements, 250 kilometres north of Baghdad, after imposing a curfew a day earlier.

The curfew will run "until further notice," a senior police officer told Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa.

Vehicles and persons will not be allowed to move about as part of the police crackdown on militancy.

Roads into the city have been sealed off. Widescale raids have been conducted in some districts, suspects arrested and arms have been confiscated, security sources said.

US military forces and Iraqi army troops are providing "intelligence information and aerial support," police sources said, adding, that the security measures are part of a new security plan, after escalating attacks in the city.

Violence continued to rip through other Iraqi cities. Mortar shells rocked an Iraqi village killing two civilians and wounding four others in Hillah, 100 kilometres south of Baghdad.

A child was wounded in a separate attack in the same area when a bomb was thrown at the entrance to a house, police reported.

Police sources told Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa that houses in Asriyah village had been bombarded early Saturday and an unknown armed militant threw a hand grenade at a sheikh's house in a nearby city, 20 kilometres away.

It remained unclear why the house of Sheikh Maged al-Maamoury had been targeted.

In another crackdown on militancy, Iraqi police forces conducted a raid in Mahawil. Police said they had arrested five people suspected of executing attacks against US and Iraqi military forces.

In another development in Baghdad, unknown gunmen opened fire on Nasir Shamel, captain of the Iraqi national handball team, instantly killing him instantly.

Police sources in Baghdad said that Shamel was in his own shop in the al-Mansour district west of Baghdad when gunmen shot him dead and then fled.

© 2006 dpa German Press Agency