At least 17 people have been killed in Iraq over the past 24 hours as attempts to agree a constitution resumed today.
A car bomb targeting a police convoy in central Baghdad today killed at least three people and wounded 32 on the same day as gunmen killed ten policemen in a series of attacks across the capital.
In one attack, four policemen on patrol were killed by insurgents with automatic weapons on a major highway in the eastern part of the capital.
In the southern Baghdad district of Doura a police captain and his driver were killed, and in nearby Zafaraniya an officer in the Interior Ministry's major crimes unit was shot dead in his car.
Two police officers were gunned down in eastern Baghdad's Zayouna district, and gunmen shot dead one policeman and wounded three in an attack on a patrol in the poor northern suburb of al-Shu'ula.
Elsewhere in the country, three pilgrims were killed and eight injured when gunmen sprayed their minivan with gunfire near the town of Baquba, medical sources said. The pilgrims were heading to neighbouring Iran to visit a holy Shia shrine.
Two people were burned to death when insurgents stopped their truck and set fire to it in an area called Abu Khamis, just north of Baghdad.
Some 40 kilometres outside the capital in Latifiyah, two Iraqi civilians were killed and a third critically wounded yesterday when gunmen fired on their car. Police said it was unclear why the three men, who were brothers, had been attacked.
Iraqi leaders resume talks today aimed at breaking the deadlock over the drafting of a constitution for the country.
A sandstorm that spread chaos across Baghdad prevented a second round of talks yesterday, stepping up pressure to meet an August 15th deadline for handing the charter to parliament.
Leaders from across Iraq's sectarian and ethnic divides are trying to resolve issues such as regional autonomy, the role of Islam and control of oil revenues.