18 displaced people killed in bomb attack in Iraq

Eighteen displaced people were killed and four policemen wounded in a roadside bomb attack targeting a convoy carrying Iraqi families fleeing a town seized by Islamic State (IS) militants in Iraq's Salahudin province, a provincial security source said on Saturday.

The incident took place on Friday when two roadside bombs struck a convoy of police vehicles carrying the families who fled their homes in the IS-held town of Hawijah in Iraq's northern city of Kirkuk to the refugee camp in the town of Alam, east of Salahudin's provincial capital city of Tikrit, the source told Xinhua on condition of anonymity.

Most of the killed were women and children, the source said, adding that two police officers and two policemen were wounded by the attack.

The civilians were prevented from leaving their homes by IS militants who used them as human shields during armed military attacks.

Dozens of displaced people were killed by roadside bombs planted by IS militants recently; while they were trying to flee the areas seized by the extremist IS militants.

Terrorist acts, violence and armed conflicts killed 1,792 Iraqis and wounded 1,358 others in October across Iraq, the United Nations Assistance Mission for Iraq said.

Many blame the current chronic instability, cycle of violence, and the emergence of extremist groups, such as the IS, on the U.S., which invaded and occupied Iraq in March 2003. Endit