Gunmen opened fire on Iraqi laborers and ironsmiths traveling to work north of Baghdad on Tuesday, killing seven people and wounding eight, police said.

The attacks came a day after Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki and visiting British Prime Minister Tony Blair announced that Iraqi security forces would start assuming full responsibility for some provinces and cities next month, leading to the eventual withdrawal of all coalition forces.

The leaders said "responsibility for much of Iraq's territorial security should have been transferred to Iraqi control" by December. At that point, al-Maliki said, two of Iraq's most violent provinces, Baghdad and Anbar, may be the last where coalition forces maintain control.

But Tuesday's violence north of Baghdad showed that goal may not be easy to achieve.

Gunmen riding in a car shot and killed four ironsmiths and wounded one as they were riding in a pickup truck to work in Mosul, capital of Ninevah province, said police Brig. Abdul-Hamid Khalaf.

Earlier, a drive-by shooting killed three Iraqi day laborers and wounded four as they rode in a minibus to work at a farm near Baqouba, 35 miles northeast of Baghdad.

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