BAGHDAD - A series of mortar barrages killed eight civilians and wounded 25 others early Saturday in a Sunni neighborhood in central Baghdad, police said, while a strategic bridge was damaged by a bomb in northern Iraq.

A hooded Iraqi policeman (L) and a US Marine stand outside an Iraqi house during a patrol in Fallujah, May 2007. A senior Al-Qaeda commander in Fallujah was shot dead by unknown militants, police in the restive western Iraqi city announced, in further Iraqi attacks on the militant group. [AFP]

The mortars began slamming into the Fadhil area in Baghdad at 1:30 am and continued sporadically until 7 am, damaging five houses, a policeman said, speaking on condition of anonymity as he was not authorized to deal with the media.

At least one woman and one child were among the eight dead, he said.

Fadhil is a Sunni enclave in the Shiite-dominated area east of the Tigris River dividing Baghdad. Baghdad's Sunni and Shiite neighborhoods frequently exchange mortar and other fire in Iraq's continuing sectarian conflict.

Elsewhere in the capital, residents in the Sunni neighborhood of Amariyah remained under curfew as US and Iraqi troops sought to maintain calm in the area after fierce clashes between rival insurgent groups and al-Qaida in Iraq.

Firas al-Azzawi, a 32-year-old father of two, said he has kept his electronics shop closed since the clashes began earlier this week.

He said people were converging on the few stores that were open to buy food, including one grocer who brought in fresh vegetables from Abu Ghraib, west of Baghdad, by loading them in handcarts from a vehicle that wasn't allowed to enter the area.

"The grocer was selling one kilogram (two pounds) of each kind of vegetable to each individual because there was not enough for everyone who were waiting in a line to buy," al-Azzawi said, adding the schools had been open and students were able to take their exams.

"There is no electricity, no water and no fuel. Street generators stopped feeding the area with power during daytime because of fuel shortage. They only provide power for few hours during the night," he said.

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Mortar attacks kill 8 in Baghdad(Over)
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