BAGHDAD: A suicide bomber blew up a vehicle at an Iraqi army checkpoint in Baghdad on Friday killing five people, including three soldiers, and wounding 18 others, an interior ministry official said.
The attack struck at 7:00 am (0400 GMT) in Ghazaliyah, a Sunni majority neighborhood and former stronghold of insurgents in the west of the capital.
Although overall levels of violence in Iraq have fallen markedly since their peak in 2006 and 2007, deadly attacks against civilians and security forces in Baghdad occur almost every day.
On Thursday, the United Nations warned in its latest human rights report that although unrest in the country had declined since 2008, "attacks
deliberately targeting religious and ethnic groups continue unabated."
A string of attacks against Shiite pilgrims between Tuesday and Thursday killed 70 people in Baghdad, security officials said, highlighting the continued ability of insurgents to inflict bloodshed.
The death toll was another blow to the leaders of a country which remains dogged by sectarian strife and has only a caretaker government more than four months after a general election in which no clear winner emerged.
