Gunmen and bombers launched three attacks on US-backed neighbourhood security patrols in Baghdad today, killing at least three of the patrol members and wounding 17.
US forces in Iraq have increasingly relied on neighbourhood patrols to keep peace in mainly Sunni Arab parts of Iraq as part of a strategy that has helped bring violence levels down dramatically over the past several months.
But the patrol members, who are paid by US forces and not officially part of the Iraqi security forces, have increasingly come under attack by militants.
In one incident today, bombers killed two patrol members and wounded 10 in a strike on their headquarters in the Adhamiya neighbourhood of northern Iraq, until recently a Sunni Arab militant stronghold.
Gunmen attacked a patrol in another northern area, killing one patrol member and wounding four. In the southern Doura neighbourhood, another former Sunni militant stronghold, gunmen wounded three patrol members manning a checkpoint.
US forces are trying to isolate al Qaeda fighters by recruiting Sunni Arabs who have turned against the strict Sunni Arab militants.
US commanders credit the tactic as one of the main reasons why the number of attacks across Iraq has fallen 60 per cent since June.
US forces call the patrols "concerned local citizens" and pay some 50,000 patrol members about $10 a day. They are expected to provide their own weapons but are issued ID cards and simple uniforms such as reflector vests or shoulder belts.
Washington acknowledges some of the patrol members may have had links to insurgent groups but says they are screened to weed out those responsible for attacks.