Six people including two police officers were killed and 18 others were injured Sunday when a roadside bomb targeting a police patrol went off in Iraq’s northern Salahuddin province.
The blast occurred in a popular market in Shrqat town, 280 km north of Baghdad, local police source told Xinhua.
The explosion also damaged a police car and several shops. Security forces cordoned off the area and began searching the nearby houses for attacker, he added.
Also on Sunday, two car bomb explosions hit Baghdad’s city center, killing 26 people and wounding 53 others.
Overall violence in Iraq has dropped sharply since the height of sectarian warfare in 2006-2007, but an inconclusive March parliamentary election has fueled a spike in bloodshed. The election is widely expected to shape the political landscape of the war-torn country.
The U.S. forces last year have pulled out of Iraqi cities and are working to formally end combat operations by September 1 of this year, cutting the U.S. military force from just under 90,000 to 50,000.