Nine Iraqi soldiers and seven policemen have been killed in overnight attacks and clashes across the country.
Local sources said Saturday that five of the soldiers lost their lives in fighting with militants in the Jurf al-Sakhr area of the capital, Baghdad.

In the city of Tikrit, gunmen also shot dead a police colonel in his home and killed four soldiers on the area’s main highway.

Five policemen were killed in a bomb attack in northern Tikrit.

Militants also shot dead a police captain in the town of Sulaiman Bek in Salahuddin Province.

On Friday, carnage took toll on the lives of nearly two dozen people across the country.

No group has claimed responsibility for the attacks, but al-Qaeda-linked militants frequently target Iraqi security forces with bombings and shootings.

The latest incidents of violence came as at a time when Iraqi troops, backed by local Sunni tribesmen, are fighting al-Qaeda-affiliated militants in the country’s western regions, including Anbar Province.

Violence erupted in Anbar late December, when security forces dismantled a protest camp which the government said was used by militants for launching terrorist attacks.

The removal of the camp in the provincial capital city of Ramadi sparked protests from Iraqi lawmakers who urged the army to leave the city.

However, the withdrawal of government forces from the city paved the way for militants from the so-called Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) to move in and seize Ramadi and the neighboring city of Fallujah.

Official figures say some 1,013 people were killed in January alone, making it the deadliest month in Iraq since April 2008.

By Press TV

 

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