A high-ranking police officer was killed and eight people injured Wednesday in separate attacks across Iraq, according to police sources, dpa reported.
The police officer was shot dead by gunmen who broke into his house in Samarra, some 120 kilometres north of Baghdad.
Samarra, which has a majority Sunni population, was the site of a Shiite mosque bombing in 2006 that triggered a two-year wave of nationwide sectarian violence.
In central Baghdad, meanwhile, three people were injured Wednesday when a bomb exploded near the national theatre. Also in the capital, a roadside bomb left two others injured when it went off.
Baghdad security chief Qassim Atta said security forces arrested a suspected senior member of al-Qaeda, Muhanad Mohammad Naif.
To the north of the capital, a roadside bomb injured one person when it exploded near his house north-west of Kirkuk.
Separately, a suicide bomber wearing an explosive belt blew himself up near a gathering of the Kurdish Pehsmerga security forces in the Qalaat-Diza district, north-east of the city Sulaimaniya. That attack left two security members injured.
Security forces recognized the bomber and asked him to surrender, but he was able to blow himself up.
Sources said the Peshmerga forces had received information on Tuesday about the attack, and suspected that the bomber was affiliated with al-Qaeda.
In recent months, both Iraqi civilians and security forces have been increasingly coming under attack from insurgents amid a continuing political stalemate that has left the country without a new government since parliamentary elections seven months ago.
The surge in violence also comes as the United States' military presence in Iraq has dropped to around 50,000 soldiers, its lowest level since the 2003 US-led invasion. dpa str ka nes bve ayb amh Author: Nehal El-Sherif