14 killed in Iraq attacks

Baghdad, March 21 (IANS) At least 14 people, including a senior police officer, were killed Friday in attacks and clashes in Iraq, police said.

Raghib Radhi al-Omairi of the Iraqi Federal Police was killed when a suicide truck bomber attacked the brigade headquarters near Adheam, some 120 km northeast of Iraq's capital Baghdad, a local police source told Xinhua.

Two other police officers and four of al-Omairi's bodyguards were also killed in the suicide attack, the source said.

In Samarra, 120 km north of Baghdad, two members of the federal police forces were killed and three injured when a suicide car bomb went off at a police checkpoint, the police source said.

After the explosion, unidentified gunmen attacked the checkpoint and kidnapped five policemen. Two Hummer vehicles and some weapons and ammunition were also taken by them, the source said.

Three gunmen and two policemen were killed when clashes broke out in six villages in the area of Qaratapa, northeast of Baquba, 65 km northeast of Baghdad, the police source said.