Baghdad, Dec 11 (IANS): Eight people were killed and four wounded in violent acts across Iraq, police said Wednesday.

In Iraq's northern central province of Salahudin, police found the heads of two members of the Sahwa paramilitary group, who were kidnapped Monday night from a village near the city of Baiji, some 200 km north of Iraq's capital Baghdad, a provincial police source told Xinhua.

Police are investigating the incident and searching for the bodies of the two members of the government-backed anti-Al Qaeda group, the source said.

Separately, the police found the body of an owner of a perfume shop who was kidnapped by gunmen Tuesday night in Salahudin's provincial capital city of Tikrit, some 170 km north of Baghdad, the source said.

Salahudin is a Sunni-dominated province, whose capital Tikrit is the hometown of former president Saddam Hussein.

In northern Iraq, the mayor of Mosul, Hussein Ali, escaped with wounds after an attack by gunmen on his convoy in his city, some 400 km north of Baghdad, a local police source told Xinhua.

The attack resulted in the killing of two of Ali's bodyguards while three others sustained injuries, the source said.

In a separate incident, gunmen broke into the house of a policeman in a village near Mosul and shot him dead before fleeing the scene, the source added.

In Iraq's eastern province of Diyala, two policemen were killed in an explosion at their checkpoint in the city of Maqdadiyah, some 100 km northeast of Baghdad, a provincial police source said.

Iraq is witnessing its worst eruption of violence in recent years. According to the UN Assistance Mission for Iraq, 8,109 Iraqis were killed in the country from January to November this year.