Five people were killed and 10 wounded, including several police officers, when two suspected suicide car bombers attacked police checkpoints in southern Baghdad today, police said.
The attacks in the Abu Dsheer district came amid political tensions as a Sunni-backed alliance which came first in an inconclusive election in March accused Shia-led factions of trying to deprive it of the right to form the next government.
They also followed a string of successes in recent weeks against al-Qaeda in Iraq, including the killing of its top leaders on April 18th.
Last Friday car bombs planted in Shia neighbourhoods of Baghdad killed dozens.
Security officials said last week's bombings were likely revenge attacks for the deaths of al-Qaeda's leader in Iraq, Abu Ayyub al-Masri, and Abu Omar al-Baghdadi, the purported head of its affiliate, the Islamic State of Iraq.
Today's attacks in Abu Dsheer, suicide bombers in two cars drove at two checkpoints at more or less the same time, and blew themselves up, a police source said.
Violence in Iraq has fallen sharply since the peak in 2006-2007 of sectarian bloodshed unleashed by the 2003 US-led invasion; but bombings and assassinations remain a daily occurrence.
Reuters