19 killed in Iraq violence

Baghdad, Jan 14  At least 19 people were killed and 61 wounded Monday as new acts of violence spread across Iraq, a source said.

The largest attack occurred with the explosion of a car bomb parked near a mosque in the Bab Al Mohazam area on Baghdad's north side, leaving five dead and 14 injured.

Three similar attacks took place in other areas around the Iraqi capital, leaving four people dead and more than 30 others injured.

A police officer died and four others were wounded in an armed onslaught against a checkpoint in Al Hamra, 170 km north of Baghdad.

The source added that a police officer and another three people suffered wounds in a similar offensive south of Baqubah.

Meanwhile, an Iraqi army communique reported that its forces killed five suspected terrorists and destroyed a base of the Al Qaeda-linked Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant in the western province of Anbar.

Iraq is experiencing a resurgence of political and sectarian violence that claimed nearly 9,000 lives in 2013, the vast majority of them civilians, according to UN figures.