At least 33 Iraqis killed in attacks, shootings

HAWIJAH, Iraq, Wednesday (AFP) At least 33 Iraqis were killed across Iraq in what turned out to be the bloodiest day since the month of May, during which almost 700 Iraqis lost their lives.

Fourteen Iraqis died, half of them soldiers, in early morning car bomb attacks around the northern town of Hawijah on Tuesday in the latest major attack on Iraq's security forces.

The explosions occurred as officials hailed gains from Operation Lightning, a more than two-week-old sweep of the capital, but warned against complacency, saying the insurgency's demise would be a "slow death".

Three suicide bombers struck almost simultaneously, targeting army checkpoints on the northern, western and eastern entrances of the restive Sunni Arab town, 210 kilometres (130 miles) from Baghdad, police said. The casualty toll from the attacks was 14 killed and 20 wounded said Dr Jasim Hamad, director of Hawijah's general hospital. Among the dead were seven soldiers, three children and a woman. US forces sealed off what quickly became a virtual ghost town with Apache attack helicopters circling overhead, an AFP correspondent reported.

Nine people were killed in the northern city of Mosul, including four peshmerga militiamen reportedly shot dead by police after they were mistaken for insurgents and three students killed when unknown gunmen burst into their apartment. One policeman died in a drive-by shooting in the city's industrial district and another in a mortar attack on his station in Tun Kubri, to the south.

North of Baghdad, four Iraqi soldiers were killed in an ambush and roadside bombing, while two bullet-riddled bodies were found on the banks of a nearby river. Near the former rebel stronghold of Fallujah, west of Baghdad, three civilians died and 13 were wounded in a mortar attack on a military base.