BAGHDAD: Attacks targeting security forces across Iraq left three policemen and an army officer dead on Wednesday, officials said, amid a spike in unrest as the country grapples with a political crisis.

Two policemen were shot dead and three others were 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.

North of Baghdad in the town of Tuz Khurmatu, an army lieutenant colonel was killed and another officer was wounded by a roadside bomb while on patrol, officials said.

And in the capital, four people, including one policeman, were wounded by a roadside bomb targeting a police patrol.

bur-psr/dv AFP AP Baghdad Iraq Middle East BC-ML—Iraq Iraqi officials: Militants in speeding cars kill 2 policemen, wound 4 south of Officials said assailants opened automatic fire on a police checkpoint in Musayyib, about 40 miles (60 kilometres) south of Baghdad, killing two officers and wounding four.

A police officer said the attackers were in two speeding cars when they sprayed the checkpoint with machinegun fire early on Wednesday.

A hospital official confirmed the casualty figures.

Both officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they are not authorised to talk to the media.

No organisation has claimed responsibility for the deadly string of attacks, but Sunni militants including Al Qaeda’s front group often target 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.