BAGHDAD: Attacks in Iraq on Thursday killed 13 people, including 10 in a bomb at the home of two brothers who were policemen, while officials warned Al-Qaeda was targeting ex-fighters who had switched sides.
The bloodshed comes after a spate of attacks since US forces completed their withdrawal in December, with Iraq mired in a political stand-off that has pitted the Shiite-led government against the main Sunni-backed political bloc.
In the deadliest attack, a bomb exploded at the home of policemen Ahmed and Jihad Zuwaiyin as they and their families were sleeping at 4:00 am (0100 GMT) in Mussayib, 60 kilometres (37 miles) south of Baghdad.
The blast killed the two officers, their wives and six children aged 10 or younger, said a police officer in Babil provincial capital Hilla and a doctor at Mussayib hospital, both on condition of anonymity.
The police officer said the blast was caused by several roadside-type bombs placed near the house's outer walls, which destroyed it. Four people were wounded and six nearby houses were also damaged.
Mussayib, a predominantly Shiite town, lies in a confessionally mixed region dubbed the Triangle of Death because of the frequency of attacks during the worst of the insurgency that followed the US-led invasion of 2003.
In the northern ethnically mixed city of Kirkuk, meanwhile, three people were killed and five others wounded by a bomb on a motorcycle parked near a primary school in the city centre, police Brigadier General Adil Zain al-Abidine said.
Kirkuk lies at the centre of a tract of disputed territory that is claimed by both the central government in Baghdad and authorities in Iraq's autonomous northern Kurdish region.
The interior ministry, meanwhile, warned Al-Qaeda's front group in the country, the Islamic State of Iraq (ISI), was targeting its former members who have switched sides in a bid to cause a split between them and the government.
"Al-Qaeda is putting pressure on members of the Sahwa to force them to abandon their national position," deputy interior minister Adnan al-Assadi said in a statement posted on the ministry website.
The Sahwa is a tribal militia force comprised of Sunni Arabs who sided with US forces from late 2006 onwards, helping turn the tide of Iraq's insurgency.
Assadi's remarks came just days after assassins killed Mullah Nadhim al-Juburi, an ISI leader-turned-critic who had been working with Iraq's national reconciliation commission.
Violence is down from its peak in 2006 and 2007, but attacks remain common. More than 200 people have been killed in attacks since American forces completed their pullout from Iraq on December 18, according to an AFP tally.
Reflecting ongoing sectarian tensions amid a political row in Iraq, messages were posted on Monday on the Honein jihadist forum vowing further attacks targeting Iraqi Shiites.
"The lions of the Islamic State of Iraq (will not cease their operations)... as long as the Safavid government continues its war. We will spill rivers of their blood as reciprocity," ISI said in a statement claiming responsibility for attacks on Shiite pilgrims in the past month.
The jihadists often invoke Iran's Safavid past, referring to the Shiite dynasty that ruled Persia between the 16th and 18th centuries and conquered part of Iraq, when denouncing the Baghdad government, which they say is controlled by Iran.
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