Baghdad violence leaves 10 dead

The children were killed by a bomb left outside a camera shop

At least 10 people were killed, including three children, in a series of insurgent attacks throughout the Iraqi capital, Baghdad, police said.

Four policemen were killed and two wounded by a car bomb attack on their patrol in Adhamiya in northern Baghdad.

Two girls and a boy all under 14 were killed by a booby trap bomb on their way to school in al-Fadl district.

In other violence, gunmen killed two policemen in Saidiya and a bomb killed a man near the technology university.

Five policemen and three civilians were also wounded by a car bomb attack on a police commando patrol in Karrada.

In the Shia neighbourhood of al-Shula, Iraqi police found the bodies of at least four men who had been handcuffed, blindfolded and shot in the head.

The men's identities are not known.

Schoolchildren

In al-Fadl, the three children had been on their way to school when they stopped to inspect a bag left outside a camera shop in the predominantly Sunni district.

"I saw the children playing with a bag and suddenly it exploded," Ali Mahmoud, who was driving a minibus nearby, told the AFP news agency.

"It was awful."

The owner of the ruined camera shop said he did not know why his store had been targeted.

The children's father, street vendor Jamil Mohammed, said his two daughters and a son had been aged between 10 and 14-years-old.

"We are poor people who have nothing to do with politics," Mr Mohammed said.

"We only wanted to live a decent life. What is the guilt of my dead children? They were only heading to school. Now I am left with only two children. This is a disaster for my family."