13 dead in blasts in and around Baghdad: official

A series of bombings in and around Baghdad killed 13 people, including seven policemen, and wounded 65 on Sunday, security officials said.

A total of 11 roadside bombs, two vehicles packed with explosives and one suicide attacker struck in the spate of morning blasts, although it was not immediately clear if the violence was coordinated.

The deadliest attack saw seven policemen killed and 10 others wounded in a suicide bombing in the town of Taji, 25 kilometres (15 miles) north of the capital, an interior ministry official said, on condition of anonymity.

A car bomb had initially gone off at around 9:00 am (0600 GMT) in the town, and when residents and ambulance crews arrived at the scene, a suicide bomber blew himself up, the official said.

Four roadside bombs and a car bomb near a police station in the south Baghdad neighbourhood of Al-Amil killed two people and wounded 15, including three policeman, while a roadside bomb in Saidiyah, also in the south, wounded three people.

Two separate roadside bombs, one near a hospital and another near a popular market, in the predominantly Shiite north Baghdad district of Sadr City left two people dead and 14 wounded, the interior ministry official said.

Also in north Baghdad, a roadside bomb targeting a police brigadier general's convoy killed a civilian and wounded five people, including two of the senior commander's bodyguards.

Two roadside bombs in central Al-Wathiq square killed one person and wounded 12, six of them policemen, while a bomb blast in eastern Beirut Square wounded six.

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