BAGHDAD, Sept 16: A suicide car bomber blew himself up outside a Shia mosque north of Baghdad on Friday, killing 11 and wounding 21, the latest attack in a three-day surge of violence that has killed more than 200 people.

Iraqi police Captain Saed Ahmed said the bomber blew himself up outside the mosque in Tuz Khurmatu, a mixed Sunni and Shi’ite town 160km north of Baghdad, as worshippers were emerging from prayers on the Muslim holy day.

An official at the local hospital said many of the injured had been sent to a larger hospital at Kirkuk because they were so badly wounded in the blast.

A witness to Friday’s attack said he thought as many as 20 people may have died. “There are many, many wounded,” he said.

There was more violence in Baghdad, where gunmen shot dead two labourers and a government official in drive-by shootings.

Police said the gunmen, travelling in two cars, opened fire on a group of men near the district of Sadr City as they lined up to find jobs, killing two and wounding a dozen.

Minutes later, further down the road, the same gunmen opened fire on a vehicle carrying officials from the transport ministry, killing one and wounding another, the police said.

South of Baghdad, a car bomber targeted a police convoy in the town of Hasswa, killing three police and wounding six. West of the capital, a roadside bomb killed four Iraqi troops.

The attacks followed two days of heavy bloodshed, including more than a dozen coordinated car bombings in Baghdad on Wednesday that killed about 150 people and wounded hundreds.

The worst of those blasts was in a Shi’ite neighbourhood of the capital and also targeted day labourers, killing more than 100 as they crowded around a vehicle desperately seeking work.

Wednesday was the deadliest day of bombings in Baghdad since the beginning of the US-led war and underlined just how hard US forces are finding it to maintain security in Iraq.—Reuters