BAGHDAD — A spate of shootings and bombings targeting Iraqi security forces north of Baghdad Monday killed at least eight people, while a prisoner on death row escaped from a police station south of the capital. The attacks, which killed four policemen and three anti-Qaeda militiamen, came after a deadly bombing targeted Iraqi police Sunday night. Monday’s haviest toll came in the town of Tuz Khurmatu, 175 kmnorth of Baghdad.

Gunmen attacked a checkpoint in the town center, killing two policemen and wounding two more before fleeing the scene, a security official said. A doctor confirmed the toll. In another gun attack, militants broke into the home of two brothers, both of them anti-Qaeda militiamen, in the desert region west of the city of Samarra, which lies around 110 km north of Baghdad. — AFP