(WITH MIL-IRAQ-BLASTS) IRBIL, May 15 (KUNA) -- Up to three Iraqis were killed and 11 others suffered injuries in violent incidents close to the northern cities of Kirkuk and Mosul on Tuesday.
In one of these incidents, unidentified gunmen boarding a civilian car opened fire at a checkpoint, manned by members of the paramilitary militia, Al-Sahwa, in the village of Al-Zerariah, southwest of Kirkuk, killing two militiamen and wounding two others, said Colonel Serhed Qader, a local police chief in North Iraq, in remarks to Kuwait News Agency (KUNA).
A source of Ninawa Operations Command told KUNA armed men fired three mortar shells in direction of the governorate command building, located in center of the province, but the shells missed the target, crashing into civilians' houses. A civilian who was venturing out of his home was wounded, along with three other persons.
Reporting a third, separate incident, the source said a booby-trapped car, parked on side of a road in Dawarat Al-Sawas, south of Ninawa's provincial capital, Mosul, blew up wounding five persons.
Scores of Iraqis have been killed, wounded or maimed in such attacks, carried out by groups bent on destabilizing security of the nation.
Al-Sahwa was a militia, formed by the Baghdad government to help in clampdown on hard-line militant groups, namely Al-Qaeda. (end) sbr.rk KUNA 151503 May 12NNNN