27 Iraqis killed in series of attacks in Baqouba, Balad

Some 15 Iraqis were killed and other 18 injured in a booby trapped car explosion that targeted a vehicle for the Iraqi army in Balad city to the north of Baghdad.

Iraqi security sources said that most of the killed persons are civilians and indicated that the explosion inflicted damages in nearby houses.

Gunmen earlier launched coordinated attacks that targeted the Iraqi national guards and police forces in Baqouba to the north and east of Baghdad and this resulted in killing 12 persons. They are seven soldiers and five police members, and 26 others were injured including one persons in the site of the explosion.

Iraqi police sources said that clashes covered a booby trapped car explosion and three explosives and attacks by light weapons at three inspection points in the city and its surroundings.

Other sources said that gunmen installed an ambush by a booby trapped car that went off in police vehicles which hurried to the site of the clashes to reinforce the national guards forces and this resulted in killing at least five police members.

In the most recent attacks, one American military spokesman said that gunmen bombarded the downtown of Baqouba by mortars which fell near the governor's office but no casualties were reported.

In Musil to the north of Iraq, gunmen assassinated the politician Hana Abdul Qadir, former member in the governorate council of al-Musil. A spokesman for the Islamic party in Iraq said the gunmen opened fire at Hana after she had left her house.