Four dead in attacks on Iraq security forces

Baghdad, Feb 6 (AFP) Attacks targeting security forces across Iraq today left three policemen and an army officer dead, officials said. The violence took the death toll since Sunday to 72, indicating a spike in attacks amid a political crisis pitting Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki against his government partners as weeks of rallies have called for his ouster. Two policemen were shot dead and three others wounded by gunmen at a checkpoint in the town of Mussayib, south of Baghdad, while one police officer was killed and another hurt by gunfire in the main northern city of Mosul. In the town of Tuz Khurmatu, north of Baghdad, an army lieutenant colonel was killed and another officer wounded during patrolling in a roadside bomb blast, officials said. And, in the capital, four people, including one policeman, were wounded by a roadside bomb targeting a police patrol. No organisation has claimed responsibility for the deadly strikes, but Sunni militants, including al-Qaeda's front group, often attack security forces and government targets in a bid to destabilise the country and push it back to the sectarian war that blighted Iraq from 2005 to 2008. (AFP) KKM KUN 02070140 NNNN