Four Iraqi traffic policemen have been killed when a car bomb was detonated outside their station in an attack claimed by the so-called Islamic State.<br /><br /> Five people were also wounded in the blast in the capital’s Karrada neighbourhood.<br /><br /> The attack comes as Iraqi forces struggle to push back ISIL forces in the northern city of Mosul, the last key stronghold of the jihadist group in the country. <br /><br /> Government forces have surrounded the militants in the northwestern quarter, including the Old City, which is home to the Grand al-Nuri mosque, where their leader, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, declared a “caliphate” over parts of Iraq and Syria in 2014.<br /><br /> Earlier in the week, Iraqi troops captured Hatra, cutting off several desert routes used by ISIL to move between the two countries.<br />
