BAGHDAD: Five Iraqi police were killed and eight people were injured in a midnight bomb attack at a market in Baghdad's south, police said Wednesday.

The roadside bomb exploded as the policemen were travelling by car through the market in the Sunni-dominated Baghdad neighbourhood of Dora around midnight Tuesday, a police official said, speaking on condition of anonymity.

Five civilians in a nearby crowd were among those injured, he said.

Violence in Iraq has dropped off markedly in recent months, but attacks against security forces and civilians are common in the capital and the restive northern city of Mosul.

The number of violent deaths in Iraq fell by a third from the June figure of to 437 to 275 in July, the first month local forces have been in charge of security in urban areas since the US-led invasion.

The figure in May was 155, the lowest of any month since the 2003 US-led invasion.LINK