Three killed, 12 injuries in the violence in Iraq

Baghdad (ANTARA/Xinhua-0ANA) - Three people were killed and 12 wounded in bomb and gunfire attacks in central Iraq and northern Iraq on Saturday, police said.
A civilian was killed and five others wounded in roadside bomb blast in the town of Mahmoudiyah, about 30 kilometers south of Baghdad, Interior Ministry sources said the anonymity told Xinhua.
In the eastern province of Iraq, Diyala, a civilian was killed and three others wounded, including a child, when a roadside bomb struck a minibus carrying many passengers on the main road north of the provincial capital of Baquba, about 65 kilometers north of Baghdad, said the source of the Diyala operations command of anonymity told Xinhua.
In a separate incident, an elderly man was killed and one of his grandchildren were injured in a bomb explosion near his home in the town of Baladruz, about 30 kilometers east of Baquba, the source said.
Also in the province, Iraqi security forces raided two houses hiding a rebel cell which is affiliated to the militant group Al Qaeda in a residential area in the north and south of Baquba, and arrested seven suspects, said the source added.
The operation was based on intelligence reports indicating that the suspects were preparing to carry out bomb attacks on Shiite pilgrims, who walk to the Shiite holy city of Karbala, some 110 kilometers south of Baghdad, to commemorate the Arbaeen religious rituals.
Arbaeen is the end of 40 days of mourning for Imam Hussein, grandson of the Prophet Muhammad, who was killed at the battle of Karbala in 680 AD.
Elsewhere, gunmen attacked one of their cars and Iraqi army patrol wounded one officer and soldier at the entrance to the southern town of Balad, about 80 kilometers north of Baghdad, local police source said.
In addition, gunmen wounded a member of the Sunni anti-Qaeda militia known as the Awakening Council group in a village southwest of the city of Kirkuk, about 250 kilometers north of Baghdad, local police source said.
Fear has struck among the Iraqi people associated with the rise of ethnic and sectarian violence that nearly tore some countries have it a few years ago.