[Al Arabiya Latest] Gunmen attacked two police checkpoints in Baghdad on Saturday, killing four policemen and burning two bodies in public, an Interior Ministry source said in a reminder of insurgency strength in the Iraqi capital.Insurgents shot the two policemen as they sat in their car in eastern Baghdad, the official said, and then set it on fire, while two others were killed by silenced pistols at a checkpoint in the west of the Iraqi capital.
Saturday's incident was the third time in two weeks that members of the security forces' bodies have been burned after being killed by insurgents.
Security forces have been frequent targets of a stubborn insurgency in recent months as the United States reduces its troop strength in Iraq more than seven years after the U.S.-led invasion that ousted Saddam Hussein.
In Al-Shaab district northeast of Baghdad meanwhile, a member of the government-backed Sahwa (Awakening) militia was shot dead at a checkpoint, the official said, and two other fighters wounded.
The Sahwa, known in the U.S. military as the "Sons of Iraq" sided with the U.S. against al-Qaeda from late 2006, helping turn the tide of Iraq's brutal insurgency.
Dozens of the former Sunni rebels have been killed in apparent revenge attacks in recent months.
Washington plans to cut U.S. troop numbers to about 50,000 by Aug. 31, the date for the formal end of combat operations, from just under 60,000 now.
Insurgents appear to be trying to take advantage of a vacuum as Iraqi politicians squabble over positions in a new government more than five months after an inconclusive March 7 election.
Overall violence in Iraq has ebbed since the peak of sectarian warfare in 2006-07 but bombings and other attacks occur frequently.
Iraqi authorities said the number of civilians who died in bombings and other attacks nearly doubled in July to 396 from 204 in June.