BAGHDAD: Attacks across Iraq killed 16 people yesterday, while new figures showed violence last month claimed more than 900 lives as the country grapples with its worst bloodshed in years.
Data compiled separately by the United Nations and the Iraqi defence, interior and health ministries showed that unrest was near its worst since 2008, when it was slowly emerging from a brutal Sunni-Shiite sectarian war.
The latest bloodletting comes as political leaders jostle to build alliances during what is expected to be a protracted period of government formation following April elections.
The worst of yesterday’s violence targeted security forces north of Baghdad, in the restive provinces of Salaheddin, Diyala and Nineveh.
In the single deadliest attack, five off-duty soldiers riding a taxi between Baiji and Samarra, in Salaheddin, were ambushed by militants who freed the vehicle’s driver but proceeded to kill all the soldiers.
Elsewhere in the province, three soldiers and a policeman were killed in separate roadside bombs.
In the main northern city of Mosul and surrounding Nineveh province, four others died in a series of shootings and bombings, while a policeman was killed in Muqdadiyah, Diyala province.
Two teachers were also shot dead in Baghdad, officials said.
No group immediately claimed responsibility for the violence, but Sunni militants, including those linked to the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant jihadist group, frequently target the security forces, ostensibly in a bid to destabilise Iraq and undermine public confidence in them.AFP
