Five killed in attacks across Iraq

BAGHDAD - Five people were killed in attacks across Iraq on Friday, among them four civilians who died when a booby-trapped bicycle exploded near a police patrol, security officials said.
Nine people, including a policeman, were wounded in that attack in the town of Hawijah, 230 kilometres (145 miles) northeast of the capital in oil-rich Kirkuk province, police Colonel Fatah al-Khafaji told AFP.
In Baghdad itself, an army officer named as Major Jihad Ghazi was killed when a magnetic bomb attached to his vehicle detonated in the western Mansur area of the city, an interior ministry official said.
Ghazi had worked in the diplomatic protection detail, the ministry said, protecting foreign embassies.
Attacks still take place daily in Iraq, despite the number of incidents decreasing dramatically since peaking in 2006 and 2007.
Violence appears to have risen again in recent months, with July and August recording two of the highest monthly death tolls since 2008, according to Iraqi government figures.