Iraqis begin to vote in parliamentary elections

BAGHDAD - Ten people were killed and 22 others wounded in separate attacks targeting polling centers in Iraq on Wednesday, police said.

A roadside bomb detonated outside a polling center in the city of Maqdadiyah, some 100 km northeast of the Iraqi capital of Baghdad, leaving three people dead and seven others wounded, a provincial police source told Xinhua on condition of anonymity.

In a separate incident, a suicide bomber blew up his explosive vest at the entrance of a polling center in the city of Baiji, some 220 km north of Baghdad, killing two policemen and wounding seven civilians, a local police source said.

Also on Wednesday, seven roadside bombs went off separately near several polling stations in the town of Dibis, some 45 km northwest of Kirkuk, killing two civilians and wounding two army officers and a soldier, a local police source said.

In Mosul, a total of five people were wounded in three roadside bomb attacks near polling centers in the city, some 400 km north of Baghdad, a police source said.

In addition, Iraqi security forces clashed with gunmen who were trying to attack a polling center in the town of Hadhar, some 80 km south of Mosul, and killed three of them, a police source said.

The attacks came as Iraqi people headed to polling centers across the country to vote for the next parliament, the first since the withdrawal of US troops from the country at the end of 2011.