Security developments in Iraq, Aug 24

Aug 24 (Reuters) - Following are security and other developments in Iraq reported on Thursday, as of 1130 GMT.

Asterisk denotes a new or updated item.

*BAGHDAD - Two civilians were killed and nine people, including two policemen, wounded when a car driven by a suicide bomber exploded near a police station in eastern Baghdad, a source in the Interior Ministry said.

*BAGHDAD - The head of police patrols in eastern Baghdad, Colonel Hussein Abdul Wahid, escaped an assassination attempt when a car bomb exploded near his motorcade in the eastern district of Zayouna, police said. He was unharmed but five of his bodyguards were wounded, police added.

*BAGHDAD - Four civilians were wounded when a roadside bomb exploded in central Baghdad, a source in the Interior Ministry said. The target of the bomb was not clear.

*BAGHDAD - Four policemen were wounded when a car bomb exploded near their patrol in northern Baghdad, a source in the Interior Ministry said.

*BAQUBA - Two policemen were killed and three wounded when a roadside bomb went off near their patrol in Baquba, police said.

*BAQUBA - A car bomb wounded four policemen and a civilian when police were lured to the vehicle by a false tip claiming a dead body was in the car in Baquba, police said.

*NEAR KUT - Gunmen in army uniforms kidnapped two truck drivers in the Amara-Kut highway, police said.

*MOSUL - Police arrested Abdul Rahman al-Aathari, head of al Qaeda-linked groups in Mosul, police said.

*MOSUL - Two policemen were wounded when a roadside bomb went off near their patrol in Mosul, police said.

*MOSUL - The police found a body with gunshot wounds in the city of Mosul, police said.

*KERBALA - Gunmen killed four people, three of them from Saddam Hussein's ousted Baath party, in different attacks in Kerbala, 110 km (68 miles) southwest of Baghdad.

BAGHDAD - A U.S. soldier was killed on Thursday when his vehicle was struck by a roadside bomb, the U.S. military said.

BAGHDAD - A U.S. soldier was killed on Wednesday after his unit clashed with militants south of Baghdad, the U.S. military said on Thursday. Two insurgents were also killed in the fighting, it said.

MOSUL - A hospital in Mosul received the bodies of seven people with gunshot wounds, including five from the same family, a hospital source said.

BALAD - Gunmen killed three policemen on Wednesday at a checkpoint in Balad, 80 km (60 miles) north of Baghdad, police said.

BAGHDAD - Police found the bodies of three people, handcuffed and with gunshot wounds, in Kut, 170 km (105 miles) southeast of Baghdad, police said.

SUWAYRA - Police found a body, handcuffed and with gunshot wounds, in the town of Suwayra, 40 km (25 miles) south of Baghdad, police said.

BAGHDAD - Two policemen were wounded when a roadside bomb went off near their patrol in central Baghdad on Thursday, police said.

NEAR LATIFIYA - Police retrieved a body, handcuffed, blindfolded and with gunshot wounds, from a river near Latifiya, 40 km (25 miles) south of Baghdad, police said.

TIKRIT - Police retrieved a body from the Tigris river in the city of Tikrit, 175 km (110 miles) north of Baghdad, a joint U.S. and Iraqi policing centre said.

BAIJI - Police found the body of an Iraqi near the town of Baiji, 180 km (112 miles) north of Baghdad, after earlier finding its severed head in the same town on Wednesday, police said on Thursday.

BAQUBA - Three policemen and three civilians were wounded when a roadside bomb exploded near a police patrol in the religiously mixed city of Baquba, 65 km (40 miles) north of Baghdad, police said.

BAQUBA - A civilian was wounded when a roadside bomb went off near a shop selling alcohol in Baquba, police said.