Three killed in Iraq's Diyala violence

Three people were killed and 12 injured in separate incidents in the volatile province of Diyala in northeast of Baghdad on Monday, a provincial police source said.

Two people were killed and two others wounded when a roadside bomb struck a civilian car in an area south of the provincial capital city of Baquba, some 65 km northeast of Baghdad, the source told Xinhua on condition of anonymity.

In a separate incident, an Iraqi Army soldier was killed and two others were injured in a vehicle roll-over accident in eastern Baquba, the source said.

Also in Baquba, a booby-trapped car parked some 100 meters away from the building of the provincial council, detonated near a passing Iraqi Army patrol, wounding six people, including two children and a woman, he said.

One of the military vehicles was damaged by the blast, the source added.

A man and a woman were injured when unknown gunmen opened fire on them at a village in northeast of Baquba, he said, adding that the Iraqi security forces cordoned off the scene and captured a suspect.

Meanwhile, a joint Iraqi Army and police force searched neighborhoods in western Baquba, arresting nine suspects, including four wanted for arrest warrants, the source said, adding that the force also defused four explosive charges at the courtyard of a house.

During the day, two mortar rounds landed on a U.S. military base in north of Baquba without giving details about casualties, he said.

Diyala province, which stretches from the eastern edges of Baghdad to the Iranian border east of the country, has long been a stronghold for al-Qaida militants and other insurgent groups since the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq in 2003 despite repeated U.S. and Iraqi military operations against them.