Five dead in attacks on Iraq traffic police

Bombers and gunmen targeting Iraqi traffic police across Baghdad killed at least five people, including two policemen, and wounded around 30 people on Monday, police said.

Militants struck in at least four areas of the capital, highlighting ongoing security risks as US troops prepare to leave Iraq by a year-end deadline, more than eight years after the US-led invasion that ousted Saddam Hussein.

Insurgent attacks on the usually unarmed traffic police have been rare since the reconstruction of the security forces following the 2003 invasion. But Iraq started to arm some traffic police after a series of attacks last year that killed dozens.

In Monday's attacks, a suicide bomber killed one civilian and wounded seven others, including two traffic policemen, when he blew himself up in Baghdad's west-central Mansour district, an interior ministry source said.

Near the Sarafiya bridge in northern Baghdad, gunmen in a car opened fire at a group of traffic police, killing four people, including two police, and wounding seven, including three police, security sources said.

Three roadside bombs wounded at least 11 people, including nine traffic policemen in eastern Baghdad and another bomb attack wounded five people, including two traffic policemen, near Baghdad's central Nahdha bus terminal, police and Interior Ministry sources said.

Violence is down sharply in the last few years but Iraq is still plagued by daily bombings and other attacks by Sunni insurgents and Shi'ite militias. Monday's attacks underscored the ability of insurgents to hit multiple targets in the capital despite security improvements.

US President Barack Obama said on Friday all US forces would leave Iraq at the end of the year as scheduled.