47 killed, over 70 injured in Iraq violence

 At least 47 people were killed and over 70 wounded Thursday in separate attacks witnessed in different parts of Iraq, including three deadly bombings in capital city of Baghdad, police said.

In the worst incident in Baghdad’s Sadr City, a booby-trapped motorcycle exploded at a popular market, leaving at least 32 people dead and 56 injured. In another incident, an improvised explosive device struck a minibus, killing five civilians and wounding two, Xinhua reported.

In a separate incident, a roadside bomb struck a bus in the neighbourhood of Shaab in northeast Baghdad, killing a passenger and wounding three.

In Tarmiya area, some 30 km from Baghdad, two Iraqi soldiers were killed and three wounded when a car bomb targetted an army patrol. Another similar attack injured three soldiers earlier in the day.

In a Sunni-dominated province of Salahudin, gunmen attacked a checkpoint manned by members of a government-backed Sahwa paramilitary group in Shirqat city, leaving two group members killed.

In Diyala province, police found a body, riddled with bullets and dumped near a river, of an ex-officer of former president Saddam Hussain’s army. He was kidnapped earlier from near his house.

Also in the province, unidentified gunmen shot dead a civilian in Maqdadiyah and fled the scene.

In Anbar province, gunmen attacked an army checkpoint in the provincial capital of Ramadi, some 110 km from Baghdad, killing two soldiers and injuring five, local police said.

In the south of the militant-seized city of Fallujah, some 50 km west of Baghdad, snipers shot dead a civilian while driving his car.

The UN Assistance Mission for Iraq said a total of 8,868 Iraqis, including 7,818 civilians and civilian police personnel, were killed in 2013, the highest annual death toll in recent years.