国际英语新闻：7 killed, 23 wounded in Iraqi violence

BAGHDAD, July 31 (Xinhua) -- Up to seven people were killed and 23 others wounded in separate attacks in central and northern Iraq on Saturday, the police said.

In Iraq's western province of Anbar, a fuel tanker was detonated near a police checkpoint in the city of Fallujah, some 50 km west of Baghdad, killing a policeman and wounding another, a provincial police source told Xinhua on condition of anonymity.

The driver of the tanker was also killed and two civilians were wounded by the blast, the source said, adding that the incident is now under investigation.

In a separate incident, a policeman was wounded in a roadside bomb explosion near his vehicle in eastern of the provincial capital city of Ramadi, some 110 km west of Baghdad, the source said.

In northern Iraq, police patrols found the body of an off-duty soldier who was kidnapped Friday night in the city of Mosul, the capital of Nineveh province, a source from the provincial operations command told Xinhua on condition of anonymity.

Separately, a roadside bomb struck a police patrol in the al- Zanjili area in western Mosul, some 400 km north of Baghdad, wounding eight people, including five policemen, the source said.

Earlier, the police said that four people were killed and 11 others wounded in twin roadside bomb explosions targeted the Iraqi army in the town of Yousifiyah, some 20 km south of Baghdad, according to an Interior Ministry source.

Attacks are still common in Iraqi cities as part of recent deterioration in security which shaped a setback to the efforts of the Iraqi government to restore normalcy in the country about five months after violence-torn Iraq held parliamentary elections on March 7.