Several attacks kill 9 people in Iraq

BAGHDAD (AP) — A suicide attacker drove his explosives-laden car into a checkpoint in central Iraq on Monday, killing five people, and attacks elsewhere in the country killed four others, officials said.

The attacks were evidence that while violence has ebbed in Iraq, insurgents frequently attack civilians and security forces, attempting to undermine the Shiite-led government and security forces.

The suicide car bomber hit a security checkpoint near an outdoor market in the town of Balad Ruz in the afternoon, killing five people, including a police officer, and wounding 16 others, said police Col. Ghalib al-Kharkhi, the spokesman for Diyala provincial police.

Balad Ruz is 70 kilometers (45 miles) northeast of Baghdad.

Hours earlier, three people were killed and three others were wounded when bomb attached underneath a bus exploded, police said. The bus had just left a station in the Abu Ghraib area in the western suburbs of Baghdad.

Also in Abu Ghraib, police said a roadside bomb exploded next to a police patrol, killing one police officer and wounding two others.

Medics in nearby hospital confirmed the casualties. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to brief reporters.

___

Associated Press writer Qassim Abdul-Zahra contributed.