Eight killed in Iraq bombings

Bombings in Iraq killed eight people on Wednesday as authorities released figures showing nearly 70,000 people died in violence from 2004 to 2011, markedly fewer than numbers from other sources. The latest bloodshed comes a month before Baghdad hosts an Arab summit, the first such non-emergency Arab meeting to be held in the Iraqi capital in more than 30 years, and less than a week after a wave of attacks claimed by al Qaeda killed 42 people nation-wide.
In Baghdad, a car bomb in the eastern Ameen neighbourhood killed three people and wounded at least nine, security and medical officials said. Another car bomb in the town of Tuz Khurmatu, 175 kilometres (110 miles) north of Baghdad, struck as an army-police patrol was passing. Four security force members - an army lieutenant colonel, another soldier and two policeman - were killed, and two soldiers, a policeman and a civilian were wounded, according to Lieutenant Colonel Jassim al-Bayati of Tuz police and Dr Hidayet Mustafa at Tuz hospital.