Baghdad: At least 45 people were killed and 113 wounded in separate bombing and shooting incidents in Iraq Sunday, Xinhua reported. Five soldiers travelling in a minibus were shot dead by gunmen near Shora town, south of Nineveh province's capital city of Mosul, some 400 km north of Baghdad, a police source said. A car bomb went off near the car of a judge at an intersection of Balad city, some 80 km north of Baghdad, killing four people and wounding 21 others including the judge, according to a police source who did not wish to be named.

In Diyala province, gunmen shot dead a former policeman in Abbara town, near the provincial capital city of Baquba, some 65 km northeast of Baghdad, a provincial police source said. More attacks occurred in the evening with the deadliest one taking place in the western suburb of Baquba where a booby-trapped car parked at a popular market detonated, killing 13 people and wounding 36 others, Baquba's mayor Abdullah al-Haiyali said. Separately, a civilian was killed and 10 others were wounded in a roadside bomb blast near a house in the northeastern part of Baquba, a police source said. Two people were killed and seven wounded in a car bomb explosion near a Shiite religious school in al-Amin district in the eastern part of Baghdad, an interior ministry source said.

In a separate incident, a roadside bomb ripped through Nahrawan area in southeastern Baghdad, killing two and wounding three, the source said. A civilian was killed and five were wounded in another roadside bomb blast in Shurta al-Rabia district in the southwestern part of Baghdad, the source added. At least 10 people were killed and eight wounded in a bomb explosion in Shaab district in northeastern part of the capital city, said the interior ministry source who did not wish to be named. Four people were killed and 14 wounded in a bomb explosion near a football field at a village near Madain town, just southeast of Baghdad, a police source said.

Two people were killed and seven wounded when a car bomb ripped through Baghdad's eastern district of Zaiyouna, according to the police source. In the evening, two people were wounded in a roadside bomb explosion in Baghdad's western district of Ghazaliyah, the source added. Observers see that the security situation in Iraq began to deteriorate April 23 after the security forces cracked down on a Sunni Arab protest camp in Iraq's Hawijah city. The crackdown sparked fierce clashes across the country's predominantly Sunni provinces between the Sunni tribes and the security forces.

Overall levels of violence by insurgent groups have since escalated and become audacious, as waves of massive bombings and almost daily attacks left thousands of Iraqis killed and wounded.Iraq is witnessing its worst eruption of violence in recent years, which raises fears that the country is sliding back to full-blown civil conflict that peaked in 2006 and 2007 when monthly death toll sometimes exceeded 3,000. The UN Assistance Mission for Iraq recently reported that over 1,000 Iraqis were killed and more than 2,300 wounded in acts of terrorism and violence in July, the deadliest month in more than five years.

By: IANS