Violent attacks kill 18 across Iraq

Eighteen people were killed and 24 others wounded in separate attacks across Iraq on Tuesday, police said. In one of the attacks, a car bomb went off in the town of Hafriyah, some 60 km southeast of the Iraqi capital Baghdad, leaving one person killed. Minutes later another car bomb detonated in the same area killed five passersby. In a separate incident, a car bomb exploded in the holy Shiite city of Karbala, some 110 km south of Baghdad, killing three people and wounding seven others. Another car bomb ripped through the city of Mahmoudiyah, some 30 km south of Baghdad, leaving one civilian killed and five others wounded. Elsewhere, a car bomb struck a police patrol in the city of Baiji, some 200 km north of Baghdad, killing a policeman and wounding six people. Meanwhile, four soldiers were killed and six others wounded in a clash with gunmen believed to be linked to al-Qaida organization, in Jurf al-Sakhar area in the northern part of Iraq's central province of Babil. The clash also resulted in the death of two gunmen and the capture of two others. In Iraq's eastern province of Diyala, a municipal council member was killed by a sticky bomb explosion in his car in the town of Wajihiyah near the provincial capital city Baquba, some 65 km northeast of Baghdad. Iraq is witnessing its worst violence in recent years. According to the UN Assistance Mission for Iraq, a total of 8,868 Iraqis, including 7,818 civilians and civilian police personnel, were killed in 2013, the highest annual death toll in years.