BAGHDAD, Sept 13 (Reuters) - Two bombings in Iraq killed at least eight people on Saturday, one targeting police in Baghdad and another against Kurdish forces just outside the disputed town of Khanaqin, police said.

A roadside bomb at a checkpoint in Baghdad's Karrada district killed four security personnel, three of them policemen and one U.S.-backed neighbourhood guard.

Another bomb exploded as a Kurdish security force patrol drove past it south of Khanaqin, in Iraq's volatile northern Diyala province, where al Qaeda retains influence, killing at least four of them and wounding two, police said.

Lieutenant-Colonel Idrees Mohammed, a police chief in Khanaqin, said as many as six soldiers had died in that blast.

The town was scene of a tense standoff between the Iraqi army and Kurdish forces last month, until Kurdish and Arab politicians agreed to withdraw their forces last week.

It was unclear which militant group was behind either attack. (Reporting by Aws Qusay; Writing by Tim Cocks)

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