Eight Iraqis were killed on Thursday in three separate attacks on checkpoints north of Baghdad.

Eight Iraqis were killed on Thursday in three separate attacks on checkpoints north of Baghdad.

Unknown gunmen killed four policemen in an attack on a checkpoint on a road near Tikrit, 160 kilometers north of Baghdad, a Tikrit police officer and a medic from the town's hospital said.

Three anti-Qaeda Sahwa militiamen were killed by a bomb placed in a caravan at a checkpoint near Balad, 70 kilometers north of the Iraqi capital, a police officer and a medic from Balad said.

And gunmen attacked an army checkpoint in Dujail, 60 kilometers north of Baghdad, killing a soldier and kidnapping four others, an Iraqi army officer said.

The latest violence comes a day after official figures put the number of people killed in attacks in July at 325, the highest monthly death toll since August 2010.