Baghdad - An ambush which targeted a police patrol and members of the Iraqi Awakening Councils on Wednesday evening has claimed 28 lives, including 11 council members, medical sources told Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa on Thursday.

The ambush targeted the police patrol on Wednesday evening near al-Dalimat village in Diyala province, 57 kilometres north-east of the Iraqi capital Baghdad.

Sources said that the attackers killed a policeman before opening fire on the patrol.

Police published a statement blaming al-Qaeda for the attack.

Baghdad  - Iraqi parliament adopted on Wednesday a new provincial elections law after months of heated dispute on the issue of power-sharing in the multi-ethnic Kirkuk.

"The Iraqi parliament had unanimously adopted a provincial elections law," lawmaker Ahmed Anwar of the Kurdistan Alliance bloc, told the Voices of Iraq (VOI) news agency.

The head of the Fadila party, Hassan Shammari said earlier that the parliamentary blocs reached a consensus on the article related to Kirkuk, the oil rich northern area inhabited by Kurds, Arabs and Turkmen.

Baghdad - Two civilians were killed when an improvised explosive device (IED) was detonated close to their vehicle in Iraq's Diyala province late on Monday, police sources said on Tuesday.

Baghdad- Amid what appears to be a trend in the killing of journalists in Iraq, the Iraqi Committee to Protect Journalists (ICPJ) issued a warning to media personnel to be on the lookout for car bombs.

"We call on all journalists and media staff to inspect the cars carefully before getting in the car, in case there is a bomb inside or around their car," committee president Ibrahim al-Sergany told the Voices of Iraq (VOI) news agency.

Earlier this month, a bomb was defused in the car of a correspondent of the Dubai-based al-Arabiya TV channel.

Baghdad - More than 5,000 Iraqis protested in Karbala on Monday against the removal of the Shiite holy city's police chief.

The protestors called the government to take back its decision to transfer General Read Shaker from the restive Karbala, to which he is credited with having brought security, to the city of Baquba.

The protestors, who fear that the change might bring back militias and insurgents to the city, carried signs that said "Karbala is safe with its police."

Karbala is located some 110 kilometres southwest of Baghdad.

"I do not object to the government's decision of transferring me to Baquba after all I am an Iraqi soldier," Shaker told Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa.

Baghdad - Two Iraqi police officers were killed and 22 injured on Sunday in a bomb attack outside the police academy in the northern city of Kirkuk, police said.

A suicide bomber detonated the car he was driving as groups of volunteers were leaving the academy, a police spokesman told Deutsche Presse-Agentur, dpa. Ten of the injured are in critical condition.