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![Iraqi cities are increasingly under threat from car and suicide bomb attacks [Xinhua]](http://thebricspost.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/211748532_8-300x225.jpg)
Iraqi cities are increasingly under threat from car and suicide bomb attacks [Xinhua]
In northern Iraq, Iraqi security forces clashed with gunmen during a security operation in the western part of the city of Mosul, some 400 km north of the Iraqi capital of Baghdad, a local police source said on condition of anonymity.
The clashes resulted in the killing of three security members and four gunmen, the source said, adding that the troops arrested some 15 suspected militants in the area.
In Baghdad, a car bomb went off near a minibus carrying passengers in the Shiite Sadr City district in the eastern part of Baghdad, killing up to seven people and wounding 34, an Interior Ministry source anonymously told Xinhua.
In a separate incident, a suicide bomber blew up his explosive- laden tanker truck near a police checkpoint in the town of Tarmiyah, some 40 km north of Baghdad, killing a policeman and a civilian and wounding four policemen and four civilians, a local police source told Xinhua.
Also in the day, gunmen in two cars attacked a checkpoint manned by members of a government-backed paramilitary group, known as Awakening Council, near the town of Dowr, some 150 km north of Baghdad, killing two of them and wounding two others, a local police source said.
Violence is still common in Iraq despite a dramatic decrease since its peak in 2006 and 2007, when the country was engulfed in sectarian killings. Attacks increased dramatically ahead of provincial elections held last month and have spiked in recent weeks. May has been one of the most violent months since US forces withdrew two years ago.
Xinhua
