Civilian killed in bomb attack in Baghdad

A civilian was killed and four others wounded in two roadside bomb attacks in the Iraqi capital on Thursday, an Interior Ministry source said.

One civilian was killed and two others wounded when a roadside bomb detonated in the morning in Baghdad's northeastern neighborhood of Bunouk, the source told Xinhua on condition of anonymity.

Witnesses told Xinhua that the blast targeted a U.S. patrol, but the bomb exploded shortly after the patrol passed by.

Another roadside bomb detonated near a police patrol in the Zaafaraniya district in southern Baghdad, damaging a police vehicle and wounding two policemen aboard, the police source added.

In north of Baghdad, gunmen on Wednesday kidnapped Ali al- Harbawi, head of local NGOs, while he was travelling in his car on the main road near the city of Samarra, some 120 km north of the capital, local police source told Xinhua on Thursday.

Violence persists in Baghdad and other Iraqi cities despite the presence of tens of thousands of U.S. and Iraqi soldiers across the country in a major security crackdown aimed at curbing insurgency and sectarian violence in the war-torn country.

Source: Xinhua