52 killed in Iraq violence

In a separate incident, Jawdat Kadhim, a professor and assistant dean of Tikrit University, was wounded when unidentified gunmen attacked his car on a highway after he left the university in northern Tikrit, some 170 km north of Baghdad, sources said.

Earlier in the day, a leader of a local Al Qaeda militant group and three of his aides were killed during an operation by Iraqi security forces in Aiyn al-Jahash area, south of Mosul city, some 400 km north of Baghdad, a local police source said.

Near Baghdad, a civilian was killed and 11 others wounded when a car bomb ripped through the city of Mahmoudiyah, some 30 km south of the capital, a local police source said.

In Iraq's eastern province of Diyala, two policemen were killed and four others wounded when a roadside bomb struck their patrol near the town of Buhruz near the provincial capital city Baquba, a provincial police source said.

Separately, police found a male body in his 30s with bullet holes in his head and chest dumped outside a cemetery near Baquba, sources said.

Also in the province, a woman and her daughter were wounded in a bomb explosion at a marketplace in Baquba, the source added.

Iraq is witnessing its worst violence in recent years. According to the UN Assistance Mission for Iraq, a total of 8,868 Iraqis, including 7,818 civilians and civilian police personnel, were killed in 2013, the highest annual death toll in years.