Bomb in northern Iraqi Shiite town kills 5

AP writes on google the iraq bomb blast and shia sunni fights ....

By SINAN SALAHEDDIN (AP) – 1 hour ago

BAGHDAD — A roadside bomb killed the head of an anti-terrorism police unit and four of his bodyguards Tuesday in a northern Iraqi town that is home to a large Shiite population, a police official said.

The 8 a.m. attack in the town of Armili targeted a convoy carrying Lt. Col. Zaid Hussein Khalaf, who leads the local police force's anti-terrorism section, said Brig. Sarhat Qader of the police in Kirkuk, a city farther north.

Armili, about 100 miles (165 kilometers) north of Baghdad, is a town of about 26,000 people — most of them Shiites from Iraq's Turkomen ethnic minority. More than 100 people were killed in 2007 when a suicide truck bomber targeted a town market there.

Insurgents in northern Iraq, who have maintained a stronghold in the city of Mosul, have frequently targeted ethnic minorities in recent weeks. Many of the attacks have hit remote villages and towns like Armili that often depend on a small security force for protection.

In Baghdad, a Health Ministry official escaped an assassination attempt when a roadside bomb hit his convoy in the eastern part of the capital, but one ministry employee died in the blast, Iraqi police and health officials said.

Eight bystanders and four people in the convoy were also wounded in the attack, which appeared directed at Dr. Ali Bustan al-Fartosi, who is in charge of eastern Baghdad's medical facilities. The doctor escaped unharmed, the officials said.

The police official said it was not known why the doctor was targeted.

Also in Baghdad, two roadside bombs targeted two separate police patrols, injuring 10 people including four policemen, police and health officials said.

North of the capital, in the city of Tikrit, a roadside bomb targeting the convoy of the deputy provincial governor injured one of his bodyguards. The deputy governor was unharmed, police said.

All the police and health officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to release the information.

Associated Press Writer Yahya Barzanji in Sulaimaniyah contributed to this report.