Series of deadly attack in Baghdad

The violence comes as Iraq suffers a protracted surge in bloodshed that has killed more than 2,650 people this year despite wide-ranging security operations against militants.
 
In Baladruz, northeast of Baghdad, policeman Raad Kadhim Hattab threw his arms around a suicide bomber who was trying to target an army recruitment centre, the interior ministry said.
 
The bomber detonated his explosives, killing Hattab and a recruit and wounding 10 more, police and a doctor said — a toll that would almost certainly have been higher were it not for the policeman's sacrifice.
 
Another Iraqi policeman also gave his life to protect pilgrims from a suicide bomber in December last year.
 
Militants killed 13 members of the security forces on Thursday in the northern province of Nineveh, one of the most dangerous areas in Iraq.
 
In Mahallabiyah, west of Nineveh's capital Mosul, militants with automatic weapons attacked a military site, killing 12 soldiers and wounding 15, while a police colonel was gunned down southeast of the city, a police officer and a morgue employee said.
 
Near the town of Tuz Khurmatu, north of Baghdad, militants who blocked a road and searched cars found three soldiers in a minibus and killed them, police Colonel Mustafa al-Bayati said.
 
Shallal Abdul Baban, a local official responsible for the Tuz Khurmatu area, said the soldiers were shot in the head, and added that the militants also beat the bus driver, injuring him.
 
In Baghdad, a car bombing in the Karrada district killed at least three people and wounded at least 12.
 
Thursday was the deadliest day for the Iraqi army since Feb.11, when 17 soldiers were killed.