Family members carry coffin of  police officer Mohamed Badr for burial in Baghdad

Insurgents in Iraq launched a third straight day of stepped-up attacks Sunday, killing at least nine Iraqis.

Authorities say five Iraqi policemen manning a security checkpoint were shot to death in a surprise attack shortly after dawn. Later, a car-bomb attack on a U.S. military convoy in southeast Baghdad killed at least four Iraqi civilians and injured 12 others.

Violence in Iraq has increased dramatically since Thursday, when the nation's first democratically elected government was formed following the fall of Saddam Hussein.

Suicide attacks, car bombings and other guerrilla strikes in Baghdad and nearby areas have killed at least 75 people since Friday.

Some information for this report provided by AP, Reuters and AFP.