17 die in violence

At least 17 people were killed and dozens more wounded in violence in Iraq Tuesday, as residents of Baghdad awaited a much-vaunted security operation to quell sectarian bloodshed in the capital. Three were killed and 15 wounded in a car bomb attack in the Al-Mashtel district of east Baghdad, a security source said.
A second car bomb in Bayah, south-west Baghdad, wounded five people. Another wounded four in the southern district of Dura. In Baquba, north of the capital, eight people, including a university professor, were killed in a series of shootings, police said.
Six others died in separate attacks, while four unidentified bodies were found floating in the Tigris river near Suwaira, south-east of Baghdad, police Lieutenant Ali Mohammed said.