Iraqi policemen killed in attacks

15/08/2010| IslamWeb

At least six policemen have been killed and two of their bodies burned in public in an attack on two police checkpoints in the Iraqi capital.

In the first incident, an unidentified attacker approached a checkpoint on Saturday in eastern Baghdad and shot two of the officers dead, an Iraqi interior ministry official said.

The attackers then put the bodies in a police vehicle and set it on fire.

A similar attack occurred in the southwestern district of Amil where assailants attacked another checkpoint, killing two policemen.

Around the same time, fighters attacked another checkpoint manned by government-backed fighters from groups known as Awakening Councils in the mostly Shiite Shaab district in the capital's northeast.

One of the council members was killed and two were injured, police officials said.

Hours later, a bomb attached to a policeman's car killed the driver and wounded two passengers, who were also policemen, officials said.

Security forces have been frequent targets of attack in recent months as the United States reduces its troop strength in Iraq more than seven years after the US-led invasion.

The US plans to cut its troop numbers to about 50,000 by August, 31, the date for the formal end of "combat operations", from just under 60,000 now.

Overall violence in Iraq has ebbed since the peak of sectarian warfare in 2006-07 but bombings and other attacks occur frequently.

Iraqi authorities said the number of civilians who died in bombings and other attacks nearly doubled in July to 396 from 204 in June.

PHOTO CAPTION

Security personnel gather at the site of a bomb attack in Samarra, 100 km (62 miles) north of Baghdad, August 13, 2010.

Al-Jazeera