Iraq: Electricity production up over 10%

Iraqi authorities have taken advantage of the recent decline in violence to repair damaged power stations and begin building new infrastructure, Brig. Carew Wilks said at a news conference in Baghdad's Green Zone.

Those efforts have helped boost electricity production by 11 percent. But there is still not enough capacity to meet all of Iraq's needs, so coalition forces are working with the Iraqi government on ways to share power across the country, said Wilks.

Even with current efforts, "it will take many years of major investment to meet the rising energy demand in Iraq," Wilks said.

The electricity gains have been possible because violence in Iraq has dropped to its lowest level in more than four years. The change has been driven by the 2007 buildup of American forces, the Sunni revolt against al-Qaida in Iraq and Iraqi government crackdowns against Sunni extremists and Shiite militias, among other factors.

Despite these security gains, daily attacks continue throughout the country.

A Kurdish party member was injured Sunday in an assassination attempt by a roadside bomb that killed seven people and wounded three others in Iraq's eastern Diyala province, said a local government official.

The bomb targeted a vehicle carrying Muhammad Ramadan Issa of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan party, killing five members of his family and two of his guards, said Sirwan Shukr.

The four people wounded in the bombing, including Issa, were taken to a hospital in the area, some 75 miles northwest of Diyala's capital of Baqouba, added Shukr.

Also Sunday, a car bomb in northern Baghdad killed six people and injured 14 others, including three policemen, said police and medical officials.