Anti-terror officer killed, 5 injured in attacks in Iraq

An anti-terror officer was killed and five people were wounded Saturday in separate gunfire and bomb attacks in Iraq, the police said, Xinhua reported.

In Iraq's northern central province of Salahudin, Colonel Saad Mohammed, from the provincial anti-terror office, was killed when gunmen wearing military uniforms attacked his car in south the city of Baiji, some 200 km north of Baghdad, a provincial police source told Xinhua on condition of anonymity.

Mohammed's driver was also wounded by the attack, the source said.

Near the Iraqi capital, a roadside bomb detonated near a bus carrying Iranian Shiite pilgrims in the town of Madain, some 30 km southeast of Baghdad, wounding four pilgrims aboard, an Interior Ministry source anonymously told Xinhua.

Insurgents frequently attacked Iranian pilgrims who flock in large numbers to Iraq to visit holy Shiite shrines since the U.S.- led invasion in 2003 that toppled Saddam Hussein's Sunni regime and set up Shiite-led government.

Violence is still common in the Iraqi cities despite the dramatic decrease since its peak in 2006 and 2007 when sectarian conflicts pushed the country to the brink of a civil war.