Baghdad Suicide Bomb Blast

10 officers die in Baghdad suicide blast.

A suicide attacker detonated a car bomb on Monday morning at a police station north of Baghdad, killing at least 10 police officers, police and health officials said.

Monday's attack in Samarra, 95km north of Baghdad, comes less than 10 days after a suicide bomber targeted Shi'ite pilgrims returning from a religious ceremony at the city's al-Askari mosque. Thirty-six were killed in that attack.

Two police officers said the Monday morning suicide bombing also wounded at least 22 people. A hospital official confirmed the casualty figures.

Samarra has been a flashpoint spot ever since a 2006 attack by al-Qaida destroyed part of the golden-domed mosque in the city revered by Shi'ites. The event sparked a vicious bloodbath between the country's Shi'ite majority and Sunni minority that swept through the country.

Shi'ite pilgrims flocked to the site earlier this month to celebrate an important religious holiday, the death of the imam for whom the mosque is named, and extra forces were brought in to beef up security in the city.

Also Monday, police and hospital officials in the northern city of Sulaimaniyah said a teenager died and 47 were wounded during overnight protests.

Around 20 shot

A Sulaimaniyah police official said that around 2 000 people took part in scattered demonstrations around the city, 260km northeast of Baghdad, late on Sunday. Many Kurds are frustrated by the tight grip with which the two ruling parties control the Kurdish autonomous region.

The official said Kurdish security forces opened fire in the air to disperse the crowd.

Hospital officials said around 20 people were shot, including a 17-year-old who later died of his wounds. The others were hit by flying stones.

All the officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they are not authorised to speak to the media.

The Kurdish region has been spared much of the violence that has consumed the rest of Iraq since the US-led invasion, and the area attracts many foreign businesses looking to make a foothold in the country.

But Kurds have become fed up by the lack of jobs and economic opportunity for people not affiliated with the two main political parties.

Last Thursday, two people were killed and nearly 50 injured in a protest at the Sulaimaniyah headquarters of the Kurdistan Democratic Party. Since then, demonstrators have thronged the city's streets.

Dave Lindahl

Baghdad Christian church attacked

Death Toll Rises Following Iraqi Church Hostage Rescue.

Baghdad News Updates! Iraqi officials say 52 people, including at least 30 worshipers, are dead following a bloody standoff at a Baghdad Christian church.

Iraqi forces stormed the church late Sunday, hours after militants burst into the building, taking more than 100 people inside hostage.

It is not clear how many people were killed by the militants and how many died during the rescue effort. Officials said 70 people were wounded.

Survivors say the militants entered with guns firing and immediately killed one of the priests at point-blank range.

A Christian member of Iraq's parliament Monday told reporters that at least 25 worshippers died due to what he called "the lack of professionalism or haste" in freeing the hostages. But Defense Minister Abdel Qader al-Obeidi defended the decision to storm the church, saying the gunmen were about to start killing the more than 100 people inside.

Al-Qaida's Iraq affiliate, the Islamic State of Iraq, claimed responsibility for the attack.

Police officials at the scene said between five and seven militants were killed during the rescue operation, and that another eight had been arrested.

They said some of the militants set off suicide vests and threw grenades as Iraqi forces entered the church.

As Iraqis began cleaning up outside the Our Lady of Salvation church in the city's Karada neighborhood Monday, survivors described of the carnage inside and outside the church.

They said the gunmen set off a car bomb and opened fire before entering the church, and then beat some of the worshippers.

The U.S. military provided air support the rescue operation. Surveillance video released by the U.S. shows a series of explosions inside the church as Iraqi forces moved in.

Iraqi officials said the violence began earlier Saturday when militants launched an attack on the Baghdad stock exchange, also in the Karada neighborhood.

Officials said the attackers killed two security guards, wounded four others and detonated two bombs before moving to the church.

The Islamic State of Iraq had been demanding the release of fellow militants from prisons in Iraq and in Egypt.

The group called the church "the dirty place of the infidel" and warned of more attacks against Christians.

Baghdad violence

4 killed, 16 wounded in Baghdad violence

At least four people were killed and 16 wounded in a string of attacks since Tuesday night in the Iraqi capital, the Interior Ministry said Wednesday.

Bombs attached to vehicles -- dubbed "sticky bombs" -- killed a judge in western Baghdad's Yarmouk district and wounded a Sons of Iraq leader in southwestern Baghdad, a Ministry of Environment employee in western Baghdad and two civilians in southern Baghdad's Dora district.

At least two civilians died when a roadside bomb detonated in western Baghdad's Adel neighborhood. Four others were wounded.

A fourth death took place late Tuesday night when a school teacher was shot dead outside his home in western Baghdad, the ministry said.

Hand grenades tossed by attackers wounded five policemen, three at a checkpoint in the al-Ghazaliya neighborhood in western Baghdad and two at a checkpoint in southwestern Baghdad.

And in central Baghdad, gunmen in a speeding vehicle opened fire on a police checkpoint, wounding at least two policemen and a civilian.