A series of attacks in Baghdad and other areas north of the capital killed nine people on Monday, as Iraq grapples with a months-long surge in nationwide violence.

A series of attacks in Baghdad and other areas north of the capital killed nine people on Monday, as Iraq grapples with a months-long surge in nationwide violence.

Attacks on Monday struck in Baghdad, and in and around the restive cities of Baquba, Mosul and Samarra, security and medical officials said.

In the most brutal incident, gunmen killed two policemen and an anti-Qaeda Sahwa militiaman in an attack on their joint checkpoint near Samarra and then decapitated them.

Elsewhere, gunmen killed three people, including a police officer, in separate shootings in Baghdad, while two policemen were gunned down in the main northern city of Mosul.

Mortar fire in Muqdadiyah, near Baquba in confessionally-mixed Diyala province, killed one person and wounded three others.

The standoff has forced more than 140,000 people to flee their homes, the UN refugee agency said.