Jewellery attack kills eight, 13 dead across Iraq

BAGHDAD - Gunmen killed eight people in an attack on a jewellery shop on Monday, one of several attacks in and around Baghdad that left at least 13 people dead, most of them police officers, officials said.

Photo By Ahmad al-Rubaye/AFP/File

The attack on the shop, in the Urr neighbourhood of north Baghdad, left eight people dead, the interior ministry said on its website, including the two owners of the shop and four members of the security forces.

A medical official said nine people were killed and 14 wounded in the attack. Among the people hurt were five police, four soldiers and two wounded.

Gunmen also carried out two separate attacks in Tarmiyah, a town 45 kilometres (30 miles) north of Baghdad that was once a stronghold of Sunni insurgents and Al-Qaeda, a police officer there said.

"Three policemen were killed in an attack carried out after midnight by unknown gunmen on the municipal headquarters" in Tarmiyah, First Lieutenant Uday Sarhan told AFP, adding that the attack lasted half an hour.

Gunmen also attacked a police patrol in Tarmiyah early on Monday morning, not far from the first attack, killing two more policemen, Sarhan said.

The interior ministry official confirmed the death toll of five in Tarmiyah, without giving further details.

Monday's violence comes a day after security officials said gunmen using silencers killed the Tarmiyah town mayor's bodyguards and four of the victim's female relatives.

Violence in Iraq has declined since its peak in 2006 and 2007 but attacks are still common. According to official figures, 150 people were killed in February.