Police said they successfully defused a bomb placed inside a Quran, the Muslim holy book, at a Shiite shrine in the capital's Kadhimiyah district.And in the northern city of Mosul, a traffic policeman died when a roadside bomb targeting a passing Iraqi army patrol was detonated, local police said.
The latest casualties come after the number of violent deaths in Iraq hit a 13-month high in August, raising fresh concerns about stability after the government admitted that security is worsening. Government statistics showed that 456 people -- 393 civilians, 48 police and 15 Iraqi soldiers -- were killed. That was the highest monthly toll since July 2008, when 465 died.
The high number of Iraqis killed last month was partly explained by twin truck bomb attacks on the finance and foreign ministries in Baghdad that left at least 95 people dead and 600 others wounded on Aug. 19.
On Thursday, a top U.S. officer said al-Qaeda has staged the majority of violent attacks in Iraq since the end of June when U.S. troops withdrew from the country's cities.