At least 44 people were killed in sporadic violence in Iraq on Thursday. Ten people were killed on Thursday in a roadside bomb in Al-Amin, an eastern district of Baghdad, a police source said. A further 14 were wounded. The casualties appeared to be civilians, rather than members of the security forces, the police source said. Iraqi police came under attack and fought intense battles with gunmen overnight in the southern outskirts of Baghdad, at the end of a bloody day in which at least 44 people were killed across Iraq. In the first clash, 30 kilometres south of the capital, gunmen attacked a police checkpoint killing 14 people, including six policemen, Kut police said on Thursday. A second battle erupted nearby between a joint military and police force and insurgents, the prime minister's office announced. Iraqi forces chased the insurgents through a rural area 40 kilometres southwest of the capital and killed 15 of them, the statement said, adding that two policemen had also died.
Police in Kut also reported finding 18 bodies in the Tigris river showing signs of torture. They had all been shot. In Baghdad, police said the death toll from Wednesday's twin bomb attack on a soccer pitch where children were playing in west Baghdad's predominantly Shiite neighbourhood of Amil had risen to 16. Further attacks around the country brought the dayÂ’s death toll to 44.