Two policemen were killed and four others injured when a roadside bomb struck a police patrol in the northern Iraqi city of Kirkuk on Thursday, police said.

"A roadside bomb exploded at 6:45 a.m. (0245 GMT) in the al- Askari district in eastern Kirkuk when a police patrol was passing by," a police officer said.

Two policemen were killed and four others wounded in the blast in Kirkuk, some 250 km north of Baghdad.

Farther to the north, a Shiite cleric was killed and three civilians wounded when a bomb planted at the front door of a mosque went off in Mosul, some 400 km north of Baghdad, according to media reports.

Violence continued on Thursday after more than a dozen bombings ripped through Baghdad on Wednesday, killing at least 160 people and wounding 570.

Source: Xinhua