At least 18 people were killed and 86 injured today in separate attacks across Iraq, dpa quoted police sources as saying. Seven people were killed and 48 injured when a car bomb exploded in the northern Iraqi city of Kirkuk. The car bomb went off near the house of the deputy governor of the Salah al-Din province, a source from the Kirkuk police said. Police discovered another car bomb that was parked nearby and diffused it before it went off. Another car bomb in the al-Muallemin area of central Baquba, which lies 57 kilometres north-east of Baghdad, left three civilians killed and 31 others injured. The car was parked near a police officer's home, but he escaped unharmed because he was outside the house. Earlier on Friday, unidentified gunmen killed a four-member family when they broke into their house near the Abu Ghreib area. The gunmen killed the father, the pregnant mother and their two children, a source told the German Press Agency dpa. Two rockets that fell on houses in the same area left another four people dead and seven injured, he added. Meanwhile, the chief of the Awakening Councils' tribal security force in Diyala province, Hossam al-Majmaai, survived an attack during which an explosive device went off targeting his vehicle. Explosives experts defused another bomb that was on the same road, south-west of Diyala's capital, Baquba, a media spokesman in the council said. This is the fifth assassination attempt on al-Majmaai since the councils were established in 2009.
