3 Iraqi police die in separate attacks

Two policemen were killed and three hurt in clashes the northern Iraqi city of Mosul on Sunday, police said.

Fighting broke out when gunmen opened fire on a police checkpoint, said Brig. Abdel-Karim Khalaf, spokesman for police in Nineveh province.

Mosul lies 225 miles northwest of Baghdad.

Another policeman was killed when gunmen opened fire on a police station in the Iraqi capital's Azamiyah neighborhood, a Sunni district, police said. Security forces responded by doing house-to-house searches nearby, but found nothing.

Also Sunday, a bomb hidden in a cigarette cart exploded in central Baghdad, wounding four civilians and damaging two cars, police said.