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 Shia-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 Shia 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.
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