BAGHDAD - Three people were killed and several others wounded in separate attacks in Iraq, police and hospital officials said on Monday. Among the dead was a prominent local leader of anti-insurgent Sunni forces known as Awakening Councils who was shot by two gunmen armed with silenced pistols. The attackers fled the scene after attacking Nael al-Azami near a popular cafe in Baghdad's northern Azamiyah district Monday morning. Elsewhere in the capital, a roadside bomb struck an Iraqi police patrol in the capital's Ghadir neighbourhood, killing one policeman and wounding 10 bystanders and officers nearby. In Kirkuk, a policeman has died after a roadside bomb hit his patrol Sunday night. Four of his colleagues were seriously hurt in the blast. A series of other early morning blasts across Baghdad wounded 11. The first explosion occurred when a bomb attached to a civilian SUV exploded while it was heading down Baghdad's eastern Palestine Street, injuring the driver and a passenger. About 90 minutes later, two separate roadside bombs targeting police patrols in eastern Baghdad injured a total of five policemen and four bystanders. The police and hospital officials who described the attacks spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorised to speak publicly.
