Gunmen shoot dead Iraqi policeman, 9 bodies found in Baghdad

Unidentified gunmen shot dead an Iraqi policeman in a northern district of Baghdad while the Iraqi police found nine bodies in the capital on Saturday, an Iraqi Interior Ministry source told Xinhua.

The policeman was killed in the Azamiyah neighborhood, where insurgents were active against U.S. and Iraqi forces, said the source.

Meanwhile, the Iraqi police found nine bodies riddled with bullets in different parts in Baghdad on Saturday, according to the source.

"Some of the victims were blindfolded, bound, dressed in civilian clothes with bullets in the back of their heads," said the source.

The almost daily gruesome body findings, assassinations and explosions in Baghdad and other Iraqi cities were seen as a major setback for the Iraqi government's efforts to stem violence and achieve national reconciliation.

Tensions ran high in Baghdad and surrounding towns after a new upsurge of insurgency and sectarian violence that have killed and wounded hundreds of people in the past week.

Source: Xinhua