3 killed, 19 wounded in Iraq's violence

Three people were killed and 19 others wounded in separate violent attacks in Iraq on Saturday, police said. A car bomb exploded at a parking lot in the town of Mahmoudiyah, some 30 km south of the Iraqi capital of Baghdad, killing a civilian and wounding ten others, an Interior Ministry source told Xinhua on condition of anonymity. Meanwhile, a fierce clash of assault rifles erupted between Mahdi Army militiamen, loyal to Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr and the Asa'ib Ahl al-Haq, a militia group previously splintered from Sadr, in Zafaraniyah district in the southeastern part of Baghdad, wounding at least three Mahdi Army militiamen, the source said. In a separate incident, two roadside bombs ripped through the town of Madain, some 30 km southeast of Baghdad, killing a civilian and wounding two others, the source added. Elsewhere, a roadside bomb struck mourners at a village near the restive city of Tuz-Khurmato, some 200 km north of Baghdad, leaving a civilian killed and four others wounded, a local police source anonymously told Xinhua. The ethnically mixed city of Tuz-Khurmato is part of the disputed area claimed by the Kurds, the Arabs and the Turkomans. The Kurds want to incorporate the area on the edge of their Kurdistan region. The Kurds move is fiercely opposed by the Baghdad government. Iraq is witnessing its worst eruption of violence in recent years. According to the UN Assistance Mission for Iraq, almost 7, 000 Iraqis were killed and over 16,000 others injured from January to October this year.