In Iraq, police said two houses were blown up south of Baghdad, killing five people, including three children, and injuring four others. The pre-dawn attacks occurred within four hours of each other in Qariya al-Asriya near Iskandiriya, a city considered an Al Qaeda stronghold before the militants were pushed out by Iraqi and American forces in 2008. Also today police said, gunmen killed two policemen and burned their vehicle in an ambush in the city of Samarra, north of the Iraqi capital.