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Twenty killed, 37 injured in Iraq

Baghdad: At least 20 persons were killed and 37 injured on Sunday in scattered violence around Iraq, including a mortar attack on the Health Ministry followed by a car bombing targeting a police patrol.

Police also discovered another 13 bodies, the apparent victims of sectarian death squads.

The Health Ministry in northern Baghdad was hit by two mortar shells, which slammed into the building and its garden, seriously injuring three civilians, the police said. The attackers were not identified.

Appeal for peace

As police patrolled the area later, a roadside bomb exploded killing four policemen and wounded four, while killing two civilians and injuring two, police said. In eastern Baghdad a car bomb targeting another police patrol killed five persons and wounded 17.

Iraq's feuding ethnic and sectarian groups agreed on Sunday to amend the Constitution and debate a bill establishing a federal state, even as their Shia Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki appealed for an end to violence during Ramadan. Shia, Sunni Arab and Kurdish political leaders broke a two-week-old deadlock and agreed that the Shia-proposed draft legislation would be submitted to Parliament allowing the creation of federal regions in Iraq.

The agreement came after a compromise was reached with Sunni Arabs. — AP, PTI

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