Baghdad, March 19: Three people were killed, including an Iraqi soldier, and seven others wounded in violence in Baghdad on Friday, security officials said.
In the deadliest attack, a roadside bomb hidden in a pile of trash in the predominantly Shiite northern district of Sadr City killed two people and left seven wounded, including two children, a police officer said.
The blast occurred just as local residents were set to go to mosques on Islam’s weekly day of prayer.
And in the south Baghdad district of Dora, armed men stormed the house of an Iraqi Army intelligence soldier at around 3:00 am (0000 GMT) and gunned him down before fleeing, a defence ministry official said, without giving his name.
The violence comes as ballots are being counted from the March 7 parliamentary election, the second such poll since Saddam Hussein was ousted in the 2003 US-led invasion of the country.
While attacks have dropped dramatically across Iraq since their peak between 2005 and 2007, violence remains common, especially in Baghdad and Mosul.
–Agencies