Eight security members were killed and five others wounded in separate gunfire and bomb attacks in and near Baghdad on Sunday, the police said.

In Baghdad, gunmen attacked the building of a local security company in Zainyouna district of eastern Baghdad, killing three guards, an Interior Ministry source told Xinhua on condition of anonymity.

In a separate incident, two policemen were killed when gunmen using pistols with silencer attacked their patrol in Baghdad's eastern district of Ur, the source said.

In central Baghdad, unidentified gunmen with silenced weapons opened fire on a Shiite cleric named Fadil Abdul Zahraa in al- Wathaq Square, wounding him, the source added.

A sticky bomb attached to a civilian car detonated in the town of al-Mahmodiyah, some 30 km south of Baghdad, injuring the driver, he said.

In addition, two roadside bombs exploded successively near an Army patrol in the town of Grama near the city of Fallujah, some 50 km west of Baghdad, killing three soldiers and injuring three others, a local police source anonymously told Xinhua.

In central Fallujah, a security force raided on a suspected safe house believed to be used by insurgents in al-Askari district and arrested a suicide bomber wearing an explosive belt, the source said. The force seized explosive vests and weapons inside the house, the source added.

Violence and sporadic high-profile bomb attacks still common in the Iraqi cities despite the dramatic decrease in violence since its peak in 2006 and 2007 when the country was engulfed in sectarian killings.