Roadside bombs kill five in central Iraq

Roadside bombs targeting police patrols exploded in Baghdad and nearby Iskandariyah today, killing at least five people and wounding a dozen others.

The blast in Baghdad’s mostly Sunni Muslim neighbourhood of Azamiyah killed two policemen and two bystanders, said police Lieutenant Ahmed Mohammed Ali.

At least seven more, two policemen and five civilians, were wounded, he said.

Another bomb in the capital wounded four civilians and no police in the district of Karradah, which is mostly Shiite but has a large Sunni minority.

In Iskandariyah, 30 miles south of Baghdad, a roadside bomb killed one policeman and wounded two pedestrians.

Back in the capital, another civilian was seriously wounded by an Iraqi army patrol that was shooting in the air to clear traffic in the western neighbourhood of Yarmouk, said police Lieutenant Maitham Abdul-Razaq said.