Eight people were killed in bomb attacks around Iraq on Tuesday, security and hospital sources said.

Three of the dead were policemen, while 12 people, including six police, were wounded in the attacks.

Two of the police victims were killed by an improvised bomb that targetted their patrol overnight south of Baghdad. The third was killed in the town of Fallujah west of Baghdad by a "sticky" bomb that attaches to cars.

Six policemen were wounded in the two attacks, a security source said.

Sticky bombs in different regions outside Baghdad killed the leader of an anti-Al-Qaeda militia and wounded three other people, he said.

Two civilian contractors for the Iraqi army, both male cousins, were killed when their home west of Baghdad was targetted by dynamite. Three other family members, including a woman, were wounded, police and medical sources said.

Violence in Iraq is sharply down from its peak in 2006 and 2007, but bombings, shootings and kidnappings remain common.

The UN envoy to Iraq, Ad Melkert, said last week that violent incidents still occur on average 25 times per day, but acknowledged that the number was "a lot lower than what it used to be".