BAGHDAD, June 8: Two double bomb attacks killed at least 35 people in Iraq on Friday, while overnight gunmen raided the home of a police chief, massacring his wife, brother and 12 bodyguards and seizing his children.
Seven other people were killed in a series of attacks around the country raising the day's toll to at least 42.
A twin bomb attack on a Shiite mosque near the northern oil city of Kirkuk killed at least 19 people and wounded 22, police and medical officials said.
In another dual attack, near the southern Iraqi city of Basra, 16 people were killed and 32 wounded.
Police said a suicide bomber detonated his explosives inside the Al-Thikalain Husseiniyah shrine in Dakuk town, south of Kirkuk, at around 2:00 pm (1000 GMT), while at the same time a car bomb exploded outside.
Major General Torhan Yussef, chief of Kirkuk police, said five of the 19 dead were from a single family living near the mosque in Dakuk, a town largely inhabited by Turkmen Shiites.
Doctor Azad Mahmud from Kirkuk general hospital confirmed the toll and added that 11 of the wounded were in serious condition.
The twin attacks in the south of the country targeted the town of Tis al-Qurna, just north of Basra where British troops are based.
Police and medical officials said the explosions -- a bomb in a minibus at a bus station and a car bomb in a market -- rocked the town at around 7.30 am (0330 GMT).
“First, a minibus exploded at a bus station in Al-Qurna and around the same time another car bomb exploded in a market in the town,” said First Lieutenant Imad Abdul Wahid of the Qurna police.
“We received 16 killed and 32 wounded, including many women and children from both attacks,” said Doctor Mohammed Nawruz of Qurna hospital.
In a separate incident west of Kirkuk, armed men killed an Iraqi army officer and his two-year-old daughter, police Lieutenant Mohammed Abdullah of the Hawijah police said.
The latest bloodshed comes after dozens of people were killed late on Thursday night, including 14 in a brutal raid on the home of Colonel Ali al-Jurani, chief of emergency police unit of the restive Diyala province.
A distraught Jurani said that the attack on his house at Kan'an, south of the Diyala provincial capital Baquba, took place around 10:00 pm on Thursday.
“Several armed men attacked my house ... and killed 14 people, including my wife, brother and my 12 bodyguards,” said Jurani. “The attackers also kidnapped my three children -- two boys and a girl.” In other violence across the province on Friday five people were killed, police said.
A council member of Dura town near Baquba was shot dead along with a policeman, while two senior policemen and their driver died when a roadside bomb struck their vehicle in the Diyala town of Khan Bani Saad.
Police also found bodies of two people who were kidnapped on Thursday.
Diyala is the second most dangerous province in Iraq after Baghdad and insurgents have stepped up attacks in the region following a massive crackdown in the Iraqi capital since February.—AFP