Six police among 7 killed in Iraqi violence

Six policemen were among seven people killed in and around Baghdad, including four who died in a fierce gunbattle in a Sunni neighbourhood of the Iraqi capital, officials said yesterday.
The latest violence comes as the US military draws down its forces in Iraq, five months after parliamentary elections that have yet to result in a new government being formed.
In the deadliest attack, four policemen were killed and 10 people wounded, including eight police, when clashes broke out at about 2:00 am (2300 GMT) in Saidiyah, a stronghold of al-Qaeda in southern Baghdad during the worst years of Iraq's insurgency after the US-led invasion that toppled Saddam in 2003.