Militants strike Baghdad neighbourhood patrols

Baghdad: At least three were killed and 17 injured when gunmen and bombers launched three attacks on US-backed neighbourhood security patrols in Baghdad on Saturday, while Washington acknowledged some of the patrol members may have had links to insurgent groups.

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, but are not officially part of the Iraqi security forces.

Despite some members being linked to militant groups, the US says they are screened to weed out those responsible for attacks.

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.

Patrol members have increasingly come under attack by militants.

In one incident on Saturday, 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.