Robbers shoot dead three Baghdad jewellers

BAGHDAD: Gunmen shot dead three jewellery shop owners in the Iraqi capital on Sunday, in a heist that also left two robbers and two policemen killed in a gunbattle, the interior ministry said.

Several of the gunmen managed to escape after the daylight robbery in the capital's upmarket Mansur district but without all of the loot, the ministry said in a statement.

It said police who rushed to the scene were waiting outside the stores as the gunmen tried to make a get-away, resulting in the gunbattle in which four people died.

Armed raids on gold and jewellery shops in Baghdad have been on the rise, and security officials say insurgent groups may be carrying out such robberies to finance operations.

The ministry says it believes that repeated attacks on banks, jewellery stores and money exchange offices are funding insurgents.

In separate attacks in the capital on Sunday, a policeman and a civilian were killed and eight other people wounded by magnetic "sticky" bombs attached to vehicles.

Violence in Iraq has plunged dramatically since its peak in 2006-2007 but casualties from insurgent and military action still remain part of daily life.