Police sources said Thursday`s bombers had approached a police station in Abu Ghraib from two directions before detonating their explosives.
Baghdad Operations Command, one of the security apparatuses charged with protecting the capital, said in a statement that a third assailant was killed on approach of the police station.
Amaq news agency, which supports Islamic State, said two militants had clashed with police at al-Zeidan station before detonating their explosives-filled vests.
Baghdad became the target of daily bombings a decade ago following the U.S.-led invasion in 2003 that toppled Saddam Hussein. Violence against security forces and Shi`ite Muslim civilians is frequent, even as U.S.-backed Iraqi forces have rolled Islamic State back from swathes of the country`s west and north seized in 2014.
A recent surge in bombings has added to criticism of Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi, who already faces a political crisis over his attempts to overhaul his cabinet as part of an anti-corruption bid.
Lawmakers have failed to convene a session since protesters loyal to a powerful Shi`ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr, a vocal advocate of dismantling Iraq`s quota-based governing system, breached the heavily-fortified Green Zone district two weeks ago and took over the parliament complex for several hours.
More about:
