Gunmen shot dead four farmers at an orchard in northern Baghdad on Monday morning, an Interior Ministry source told Xinhua.

The incident occurred when gunmen opened fire on seven farmers who came from the nearby Diyala province to work in pollinating date trees in the orchards of Rashdiyah area, killing four of them and wounding three others, the source said on condition of anonymity.

Violence is still common in the Iraqi cities despite the dramatic decrease since its peak in 2006 and 2007 when the country was engulfed in sectarian killings.