BAGHDAD, June 9 (Xinhua) -- Gunmen killed three jewellers and wounded a fourth in an armed robbery in western Baghdad on Monday, an Interior Ministry source said.

    The attack took place in the afternoon when gunmen stormed three shops selling jewels in the Sayyd al-Halib marketplace in Mansour district and shot dead the jewellers by guns equipped with silencers, the source told Xinhua on condition of anonymity.

    A fourth jeweller was seriously wounded by the attack, the source said.

    The attackers seized large amounts of jewels from the three shops, he added.

    In an earlier incident on Monday, four people were killed and 12 others wounded in a car explosion near an Iraqi Army patrol in a thoroughfare in Karradah neighborhood of central Baghdad.

    Violence persists in Baghdad despite a relative lull announced earlier by U.S. and Iraqi officials.