Iraq bombs target security forces

At least 10 people have been killed in two bomb attacks targeting security forces in Iraq. A roadside bomb killed six Kurdish peshmerga fighters in Khanaqin town in Diyala province, north-east of Baghdad.

Diyala has been the focus of a US-led offensive against al-Qaeda militants. Khanaqin is the centre of a power struggle between Kurds and Arabs.

In the northern city of Mosul, gunmen kidnapped and killed four staff members of Sharqia TV, police said.

They were filming a popular programme shown during the holy month of Ramadan.

Separately, a bomb in eastern Baghdad killed three Iraqi policemen and a Sunni militiaman opposed to al-Qaeda.

At least eight people were hurt in the blast, which targeted a checkpoint, according to security officials.

Blast in Dujail

An Iraqi Kurdish official told AFP news agency the blast in Khanaqin targeted a patrol on the eastern outskirts of the town, near the Iranian border.

The commander of peshmerga forces in Khanaqin and his son were among those killed, Mahmud Singawi told the agency.

Khanaqin has a mixed population of Kurds and Arabs. The Iraqi army has been trying to extend its control over the city, pitting it against peshmerga fighters based there.

In the surrounding province of Diyala, US and Iraqi government forces have been leading an offensive against Sunni militant groups allied to al-Qaeda.

Bomb attacks and assassinations remain commonplace in Iraq, although the country is generally less violent now than a year ago.

On Friday, at least 31 people were killed in a suicide bombing in the town of Dujail, north of Baghdad.

The blast targeted a police station in the commercial district of the mainly Shia town.