Five Killed in Iraq Attacks

Twin bombings and a shooting in and around Baghdad on Sunday killed five people, including three Iraqi policemen, security and medical officials said.

In the predominantly Sunni town of Jurf al-Sakhr, 60 kilometers (40 miles) south of the capital, an initial roadside bomb blast at 10:00 am (0700 GMT) killed three policemen, a police major and a medic at the main hospital in provincial capital Hilla said. Both spoke on condition of anonymity.

When another police unit arrived at the scene of the attack, another explosion went off, wounding three more people, the officials said.

Among the wounded was the town's police chief Colonel Mohammed al-Hamdani.

Jurf al-Sakhr, a predominantly Sunni town, lies within a confessionally mixed region nicknamed the Triangle of Death because of the frequency of insurgent attacks during the worst of Iraq's violence following the 2003 U.S.-led invasion.

In Baghdad, meanwhile, two men working for the Sunni endowment, a government body that manages Sunni religious sites nationwide, were killed in a midday (0900 GMT) shooting in west Baghdad, an interior ministry official said.

A doctor confirmed that the capital's Yarmuk hospital received one dead body from the incident, and said another man died after reaching the hospital.

The latest violence brings the number of people killed in attacks in Iraq so far this month to at least 118, including 60 security forces members, according to an AFP tally based on security and medical sources.

While violence has decreased from its peak in 2006 and 2007, attacks remain common across Iraq. There were attacks on 27 of the 31 days in July, and at least one bombing or shooting every day so far this month.

Official figures put the number of people killed in attacks in July at 325, the highest monthly death toll since August 2010.