MOSUL, Aug 29, 2009 (AFP) - Twelve people, including five policemen, were killed and more than 40 others, women and children among them, were wounded in two separate bombings in northern Iraq on Saturday, police said.

Five policemen and three civilians, including a 10-year-old child, died when a suicide car bomber targeted a police base in Al-Sharqat, 100 kilometres (62 miles) north of Tikrit, said local police chief Ali Al-Juburi.

At least 20 people, including 13 policemen, were injured in the morning attack.

Hours later four people were killed and 23 others wounded when a bomb exploded at a market in Sinjar, a town near the Syrian border and west of the restive northern city of Mosul, a police officer told AFP.

"The casualties include women and children," said Elias Kheder, a local authority official.

Around 70 percent of the population of Sinjar are members of the ancient Yazidi religious sect.

On August 13, 21 people were killed and 32 were wounded when two suicide bombers blew themselves up in a packed cafe in the town.

Two years ago, more than 400 Yazidis were slaughtered when four suicide truck bombs targeted two northern Iraqi villages in the deadliest attack since the US-led invasion of 2003.

Yazidis number several hundred thousand and live mostly in northern Iraq. The speak a dialect of Kurdish, and follow a pre-Islamic religion and their own cultural traditions.

They believe in God the creator and respect the Biblical and Koranic prophets, especially Abraham, but their main focus of worship is Malak Taus, the chief of the archangels, often represented by a peacock.

Followers of other religions know this angel as Lucifer or Satan, leading to popular prejudice that the secretive Yazidis are devil-worshippers.

Despite a reduction in violence across the country in the past year, attacks on security forces and civilians remain common nationwide, including in Baghdad, the restive northern city of Mosul and in the ethnically divided oil city of Kirkuk.

Two devastating truck bombings in Baghdad on August 19 killed 95 people and wounded about 600.

Iraq accused neighbouring Syria of harbouring the masterminds of one of the two attacks and recalled its ambassador from Damascus.

Syria retaliated within hours by ordering back its envoy from Baghdad.

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Copyright AFP 2009.