Iraq: Roadside bomb strikes police patrol

A roadside bomb struck a police patrol in a predominantly Shiite area of downtown Baghdad today, killing four people and wounding 10, police said.

Three policemen and one civilian died in the blast near a square in the commercial district of Karradah, according to authorities, who added that the 10 wounded included three policemen.

Gunmen also killed two people, including an employee of an anti-corruption commission in a drive-by shooting in Mosul, 225 miles north-west of Baghdad, police said.

Elsewhere in the capital, gunmen tried to break into a girls’ school in the mixed Sunni-Shiite neighbourhood of Washash, but they fled after exchanging gunfire with two guards at the school, police said. One guard was wounded.