Seven killed, 24 injured in Iraq attacks

KIRKUK - At least seven people were killed and 24 others injured in unrelated violent attacks across Iraq, police sources said Thursday.

In the northern city of Tikrit, five people were killed by a car bomb that exploded outside a shopping centre.

Police said 20 civilians were injured in the attack.

In a separate incident, militants detonated explosive devices inside the house of a police officer in the Saqlawiya city area of Faluja, killing two of his family members.

Elsewhere, a suicide bomber detonated his explosive device while driving a car near a US military patrol, also in Saqlawiya. The number of injuries or deaths from that attack remain unknown.

Two Sahwa (Awakening) movement members were killed and two others injured in an attack on a Sahwa checkpoint west of the northern city of Kirkuk, police said.

An armed group attacked a checkpoint in the area of al-Zab, some 110 km west of Kirkuk, in the early hours of Thursday.

The Sahwa movement is comprised of former Sunni militias who now cooperate with US and Iraqi security forces. They are frequently targeted by militants.