A bomber rammed his explosives-laden car into a police patrol, killing one officer and three civilian bystanders, in just one of the attacks north of Baghdad.BAGHDAD — A suicide bombing inside a Shiite mosque during evening prayers and other attacks north of Baghdad killed 23 people in Iraq on Saturday, as officials announced preliminary results for local elections in two provinces that showed the bloc of the country's speaker of parliament in the lead.
The attacks are the latest in a wave of killing that has claimed more than 2,000 lives since the start of April. It is the bloodiest and most sustained spate of violence to hit Iraq since 2008.
The deadliest attack happened after sunset when a suicide bomber blew himself up inside a Shiite mosque in the village of Sabaa al-Bour, about 20 miles north of Baghdad. It killed 14 and wounded 32, police said.
The community used to be a religiously mixed area that was home to both Sunni and Shiite Muslims, but the Sunnis were displaced by members of the Mehdi Army Shiite militia during the post-invasion wave of sectarian killing that peaked in 2006 and 2007, according to police.
Many large religious sites in Iraqi cities are surrounded by concrete blast walls and armed checkpoints, but police said the village mosque had no protective barriers.
At least five of the victims died in ambulances as they made their way from the remote village to the nearest hospital in Baghdad, police said.
Earlier, a suicide bomber rammed his explosives-laden car into a police patrol in al-Athba village near the restive northern city of Mosul, a police officer said. Three civilian bystanders and one policeman were killed, and six other people were wounded.
Al-Qaida in Iraq and other militant groups have been gathering strength in and around Mosul, some 220 miles northwest of Baghdad.
With violence spiking sharply in recent months to levels not seen since 2008, al-Qaida in Iraq and other militant groups have been gathering strength in the area of Mosul, some 220 miles northwest of Baghdad.
In the city of Tuz Khormato, 130 miles north of Baghdad, gunmen on motorcycles riddled a civilian vehicle carrying four off-duty policemen with bullets, killing three and wounding another, a police officer said.
Another group of gunmen attacked a police checkpoint in the city of Samarra, killing two policemen and wounding four, another police officer said. Samarra is 60 miles north of Baghdad.
Police also said two civilians were killed and nine wounded when a bomb ripped through a small market late Friday in Baghdad.
Four medical officials confirmed the casualty figures. All officials spoke on condition of anonymity as they were not authorized to release information.
