At least 20 people were killed Thursday in a wave of attacks across Iraq, police said, according to dpa. In the central Iraqi town of Hilla, twin car bombs killed at least 15 people, including Naama al-Bakri, a local council member and a senior member of the ruling Dawaa Party, and injured at least 75 others, police told the German Press Agency dpa. A series of blasts targeted people in Baghdad as they departed for Karbala on Wednesday, killing at least four people and injuring dozens more. A bomb at a Karbala eatery the same day wounded nine people, police told Baghdad"s Aswat al-Iraq news agency. In the northern Iraqi city of Mosul, a man was shot dead on Thursday afternoon, police there told dpa. A second man, whose faith police did not specify, was also fatally shot in the city, they added. Two members of a government-allied militia were fatally shot while manning a checkpoint in the city on Thursday, police there said. Iraqi and US officials credit such Sahwa, or "awakening" militias with helping to restore a measure of calm in the regions they patrol. Their members regularly come under attack from insurgents, who regard them and others who work with the government as collaborators. Gunmen also fatally shot an employee of the city"s electrical department as he went about his work on Thursday, police told Aswat al-Iraq.
