BERLIN, Dec 3 (Reuters) - A pregnant Iraqi woman and a group of African immigrants were attacked over the weekend in the eastern German city of Magdeburg in separate incidents police believe were racially motivated.

Police in the eastern state of Saxony-Anhalt said they had arrested two men suspected of shoving and punching the Iraqi woman in the face as she rode on a bus with her two-year-old daughter and four other Iraqi immigrants late on Saturday night.

The woman was taken to hospital with lower abdominal pain and was still there on Monday. In a second attack early on Sunday, six to seven German men shouting racial slurs attacked three men and a woman from Niger.

Two of the men were injured, as was a young German and a policeman who tried to intervene. The attackers escaped into a crowd of about 30 people that had gathered to watch the scuffle, police said.

Interior Ministry figures published last month showed the number of victims of far-right violence in Germany jumped by more than 25 percent in the first nine months of 2007.

Violence against immigrants is comparatively high in the formerly communist eastern parts of the country, where unemployment is high. Over 100 people have been killed in racist violence in Germany since unification in 1990.

Last month, police said a group of neo-Nazis in the eastern town of Mittweida carved a swastika into a 17-year-old girl's hip after she tried to stop them from bullying a 6-year-old girl of foreign origin.

In nearby Muegeln, a violent mob beat and chased eight Indians in August, sparking nationwide outrage. (Writing by Naomi Kresge; editing by Tim Pearce)

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