Series of attacks kill 78 in Iraq

He added that a policeman was killed and two others wounded when a roadside bomb targeted police patrol in Mashahda, 30 km north of Baghdad.

In a separate attack, unidentified gunmen targeted a joint army and police checkpoint near Falluja, 50 km west of Baghdad, killing a soldier and a policeman on the spot and injuring three soldiers.

In Iraq's northern city of Mosul, unidentified gunmen shot dead Mohammed Karim al-Badrani, a correspondent with al-Sharqiyah satellite channel, and his colleague Mohammed Ghanim, while they were interviewing residents in Sarj-Khana district in central Mosul, some 400 km north of Baghdad, a police source said.

The Iraqi Journalists Syndicate, which condemned in a statement the assassination of the two journalists, said in its annual report earlier that more than 375 media workers have been killed in Iraq since the US-led invasion in 2003.