Blasts kill two children, policeman in Iraq

Bomb and grenade attacks north of Baghdad on Wednesday killed three people -- two children and a policeman -- and wounded 17 other people, officials said.

A series of 11 apparently coordinated blasts targeting security officers rocked the restive central city of Baquba, 60 kilometres (40 miles) north of Baghdad, on Wednesday morning, an official in the provincial security command centre and a doctor at the city's hospital said.

A six-year-old girl was killed and 12 people were hurt in the attacks against a variety of checkpoints, security officers' homes and dismounted patrols, the security official and Dr. Firas al-Dulaimi said.

Also in Baquba, capital of ethnically-mixed Diyala province, an 11-year-old boy was killed and two other youths were wounded when a mobile phone they had found while playing exploded, the security command official said.

In Samarra, 110 kilometres (70 miles) north of the capital, a grenade attack on a federal police checkpoint killed one officer and hurt three others, police in the city said.

Violence in Iraq is down from its peak in 2006 and 2007 but attacks remain common. A total of 155 people were killed in violence in December, official figures showed.

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