Gunmen on Sunday attacked an Iraqi army checkpoint north of Baghdad, killing three soldiers.

Gunmen on Sunday attacked an Iraqi army checkpoint north of Baghdad, killing three soldiers.

Insurgents threw hand grenades at the checkpoint, which lies east of Samarra, 110 kilometers north of Baghdad, before opening fire with machineguns, an army lieutenant colonel and a medic at the city's hospital said. Both spoke on condition of anonymity.

No group immediately claimed responsibility for the attacks, but militants including Al-Qaeda's front group in Iraq often seek to target security forces and officials to destabilize the government and push the country back towards the communal bloodshed that engulfed it from 2005 to 2008.