No let up in Baghdad violence

A car bomb exploded near a Baghdad police station today, killing four Iraqi policemen and injuring four other people, police said.

Officers guarding the police station in the capital’s southern Dora neighbourhood opened fire on the vehicle as it sped toward them and exploded, a police official said.

Insurgents have stepped up attacks on Iraqi police and government officials in their effort to ruin Sunday’s national elections.

Baghdad’s Dora neighbourhood has become a flashpoint in recent days, with several street battles between insurgents and Iraqi National Guard troops and killings of government officials.

On January. 10, attackers shot dead Baghdad’s deputy police chief, Brig. Amer Ali Nayef, and his son, also a police officer, in the Dora district.

In a separate incident, insurgents shelled a US Marine base south of Baghdad on Friday, injuring three American troops and three civilians, the military said.

Mortar shells exploded inside Camp Kalsu, the main base of the 24th Marine Expeditionary Unit.

One marine, two soldiers and three civilians were injured, the military said. There was no immediate word on any deaths in the attack.