An Iraqi policeman has reportedly been killed after an improvised explosive device (IED) blew up near a checkpoint in disrupted Mosul.

A source who wished not be named told the Voices of Iraq news agency that the lethal attack took place on Friday at the al-Shifaa neighborhood in western Mosul, claiming the life of an Iraqi security agent.

A volatile ethnic mix of Sunni Arabs, Kurds and Christians, Mosul remains the scene of frequent shootings and bombings, and US commanders regard the once cosmopolitan city as the last urban bastion of al-Qaeda in Iraq. The capital city of Iraq's Nineveh province is situated some 396 km (250 miles) northwest of Baghdad.

In another Friday development, three rounds of rockets struck the al-Batira airstrip near Amara -- the capital city of Iraq's Missan province. There were however no immediate reports of possible casualties or losses.

Meanwhile, a security source in Missan said that army troopers together with police forces cordoned off the areas close to the site of the attack, where they discovered four rocket launchers as well as a fourth rocket ready to be fired.

The assault marks the first to hit the al-Batira airbase after the Iraqi army and police took over the security in the country following the withdrawal of American combat forces from cities to bases outside the urban centers at the end of June.

Elsewhere in war-devastated Iraq, Iraqi Special Operations Forces arrested eight suspected terrorists during a raid in the capital, Baghdad.

The detainees were apparently operating as an insurgent cell and were wanted for targeting, kidnapping and killing Iraqi security personnel.

MP/SME/MMA