At least 12 people were killed Tuesday, including civilians, and one wounded in separate attacks across Iraq, dpa quoted media reports as saying. In Baquba, some 60 kilometres north of Baghdad, four members of the same family were shot and killed by militants while on their way home, the Voices of Iraq (VOI) news agency said. In a separate incident, five people were killed and a policeman wounded when an explosive device located in a taxi went off in the Waziriya district of northern Baghdad. The taxi driver and four members of a family were killed in the blast near the Academy of Fine Arts. The policeman had been standing near the scene of the blast. Iraqi forces killed three militants, holding Arab nationalities, in the city of Samarra, some 125 kilometres north of Baghdad. Forces also detained a leader of the al-Qaeda terrorist network during an inspection operation launched in the early hours of Tuesday in the industrial district in the same city. A weapon cache was also found. "Forces found 17 TNT explosives, 15 explosive devices, and 13 mortar shells in addition to 19 kilograms of C4 explosives," the sources said.
