BAGHDAD: Gunmen shot dead an Iraqi border forces brigadier general on Monday, among two people killed and five wounded in nationwide violence, security and medical officials said.

Brigadier General Abdul Hussein Mohsen was gunned down by several armed men while he was in the town of Taji, just north of Baghdad, an interior ministry official said.

A medic at Kadhimiyah hospital in the north of the capital confirmed the facility received Mohsen's body, adding that the general died of multiple gunshot wounds.

A bomb blast targeting an army patrol in the town of Haditha, 210 kilometres (130 miles) west of Baghdad, meanwhile killed a civilian and wounded three soldiers, according to an army officer and a doctor at Haditha hospital.

And in the main northern city of Mosul, two young boys were wounded by a roadside bomb apparently aiming for an army patrol, according to police First Lieutenant Islam Hamed and doctor Faiz Tareq from the city's main hospital.

The latest fatalities took to 258 the number of people killed in nationwide attacks so far in August, according to an AFP tally based on reports from security and medical officials.

Violence has significantly decreased in Iraq compared to the brutal years of 2006 and 2007, but attacks are still common across the country.