Three killed in Iraq violence

Three people were Saturday killed in separate attacks in northern Iraq, said security officials, the latest incidents in a recent spike in sectarian violence, dpa reported.

A judge died and his son was injured when a bomb placed in their car went off in the town of Tuz Khurmato, some 175 kilometres north of the capital Baghdad.

Elsewhere, a soldier was killed and another wounded when a bomb hit their patrol car in the northern city of Mosul, reported the independent website Alsumaria News, citing police.

A suicide bomber blew himself up at an army checkpoint west of Mosul, added the report. There were no other casualties.

Iraq has witnessed near-daily attacks since US troops withdrew in December 2011, raising fears of a return to the sectarian tensions that drove the country close to civil war in 2006 and 2007.

The violence comes amid a widening crisis between the Shiite-led government and the country's formerly dominant Sunni minority.

Thousands of Sunni protesters have been rallying for two months against Shiite Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki, demanding a repeal of laws they claim target Sunnis.