( dpa ) - At least 22 people were killed and 39 wounded, in several attacks in Iraq, while dozens of al-Qaeda suspects were detained, Iraqi and US officials said Thursday.
In one incident, nine Iraqis were killed and 18 wounded, when a suicide attacker blew himself up at a Shiite mosque in Baquba, 60 kilometres north of Baghdad, security sources told Deutsche Presse- Agentur dpa.
In another incident, six al-Qaeda suspects were killed and 13 injured during a joint US-Iraqi raid on a major hideout in the Bishkan area in northern Baghdad, security sources said.
An Iraq official told dpa that elements from the Awakening Council, a group recruited by the US military to help fight militants, had also participated in the raid in which dozens of suspects were also arrested.
An Iraqi policeman and four civilians were injured in the northern city of Tikrit, in a blast that targeting the policeman's vehicle.
Militants killed a policemen and injured two of his security guards, in another attack in the city's Qadesya district.
In Muqdadiyah city, some 100 kilometres north-east of Iraq's capital, US forces killed three suspects and arrested another four during an operation targeting al-Qaeda, according to a US military statement.
Separately, the US military announced that three soldiers were killed and two others wounded Wednesday during a military operation in the northern Salah al-Din province.
In other developments, Iraqi authorities dismissed 174 policemen in the southern city of Basra for their involvement in vice.
Last December, a suicide attacker detonated an explosive device near the same mosque that was targeted on Thursday and killed elements of the Awakening Council, who are combatting al-Qaeda terrorist network in Iraq.
On Friday, Shiites are due to celebrate Ashura, a religious festival in which they undertake a pilgrimage to a shrine held to be the tomb of Imam Hussein, the grandson of the Muslim prophet Mohammed who was killed in the Battle of Karbala in 680 AD.