Iraqi violence kills nine people

Improvised bombs killed an army officer and policeman south of Baghdad on Monday, and gunmen overnight killed six women and a man in north Iraq, police and medical sources said.

"An army officer and policeman were killed by a roadside bomb that targeted their patrol in the city of Mussayib" 60 kilometres (37 miles) south of Baghdad, a police chief told AFP.

"Sixteen people were also wounded, among them three soldiers and two policemen, by roadside bombs in Mussayib and in different parts of Baghdad," he said.

Overnight, gunmen stormed into a notorious and poor district of the northern city of Mosul, killing six women and a man, police and medical sources said.

"Six women and one man were killed last night by gunmen who stormed into a home in Al-Tanak neighbourhood of Mosul," a police major told AFP of a poor district known as a location for brothels, which are illegal in Iraq.

A source at Al-Mosul hospital confirmed that the bodies of six women and a man had been received. He said the women were aged between 20 and 40.

Mosul's Nineveh province is home to armed Islamic groups, some related to Al-Qaeda.

Violence in Iraq has fallen since its peak in 2006-2007, but bombings, gun attacks and kidnappings are still routine.

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