Attacks kill eight people in Iraq

At least eight people have been killed and some others injured in bomb attacks and shooting incidents in Iraq.

On Tuesday, a roadside bomb explosion killed three policemen in the city of Mosul situated about 360 kilometers (225 miles) northwest of the capital Baghdad.

In the city of Kirkuk, some 250 kilometers north of Baghdad, a car bomb exploded near a building, wounding five people.

In Salahuddin province, two roadside bomb explosions killed a policeman and injured seven people.

In the city of Fallujah, some 50 kilometers west of Baghdad, a soldier was killed and two wounded in a similar attack.

Moreover, in the province of Diyala, gunmen killed an army officer in a village near the provincial capital city of Baquba, some 65 kilometers northeast of Baghdad.

Also, gunmen opened fire on a vehicle belonging to anti-al-Qaeda fighters in the city of Udhaim situated some 60 kilometers north of Baquba, killing two people.

No group has claimed responsibility for the attacks, but such incidents bear the hallmarks of al-Qaeda-linked militants in Iraq, who seek to destabilize the country.

On October 23, Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki warned that Iraq is facing a “war of genocide.”

“It has become clear … that Iraq is subjected to a war of genocide targeting all of its components,” the Iraqi premier said in a press conference.

Maliki blamed the al-Qaeda militant group for killing thousands of people in Iraq, saying that the group is “destroying the houses of citizens and killing them, and blowing up government departments.”

A study released in October by academics based in the United States, Canada and Iraq said nearly half a million people have died due to war-related incidents in Iraq since the US-led invasion in 2003.

Violence has surged across Iraq in recent months, reaching its highest level since 2008.

According to estimates by the United Nations, around 1,000 people were killed in Iraq in October alone.