A continuing wave of violence claimed 11 Iraqi lives and injured another 20 on Sunday and Monday, including an official from Iraq's oil ministry, reported dpa.
Saheb Salman Qotb, an undersecretary at the Iraqi Oil Ministry, was injured in a blast Monday in front of house in northern Baghdad, police sources said. One of his security guards was also injured in the attack, the source told the Voices of Iraq (VOI) news agency.
Other attacks claimed a married couple killed in their homes Sunday by unidentified persons, three women killed in a raid by al- Qaeda on Monday and six people and more than 20 injured in twin bomb attacks, also on Monday.
In separate news, Iraq's parliament approved a measure Monday that regulates the makeup of provincial councils, spurring complaints from Christian groups, which say the new system leaves them underrepresented.
Lawmaker Mohammed al-Khazaali said that would mean one guaranteed Christian seat on the Basra council, one seat each for Christians and Mandaean Sabians on the Baghdad council and one seat apiece for Christians, Yazidis and Shabaks on the Nineveh council.
The measure was approved by 106 of 150 attending parliamentarians. It replaces existing legislation which divided council representation by a proportional quota system.
Christian groups, which had been guaranteed seven seats under the old system in elections held five years ago, expressed disappointment.
The married couple in Mosul were strangled to death. The victims were of the Yazidi faith, a Kurdish religion with ancient Indo- European roots. Yazidis are primarily Kurdish speaking. Most live in northern Iraq.
According to the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), there are about 800,000 Yazidis all over the world. 550,000 of them live in Iraq.
Twenty-three Yazidis were slain in April 2007 by gunmen, who apparently targeted them among passengers on a bus in northern Iraq.
The deadly house raid occurred in Diyala province. Three women from the same family were killed when suspected al-Qaeda members raided their home in the al-Saadiya district, VOI reported.
Meanwhile, in Baghdad, six people were killed in a twin bomb attack Monday night in the downtown al-Hurriyat Square in Baghdad, VOI reported. More than 20 were injured, including 10 policemen.