Militants seized control of a village in north Iraq on Friday while attacks nationwide killed 16 people, including 10 policemen, amid a surge in bloodshed ahead of parliamentary elections.
The latest unrest comes barely a week before campaigning begins for the April 30 polls, which are set to be held as Iraq grapples with its worst protracted period of bloodletting since it emerged from a brutal 2006-07 Sunni-Shiite sectarian war that left tens of thousands dead.
The unrest has been primarily driven by anger in the minority Sunni Arab community, which alleges discrimination at the hands of the Shiite-led government and security forces, as well as the civil war in neighbouring Syria.
Shootings and bombings today mostly took place in Sunni-majority parts of northern and western Iraq, killing 16 people and leaving 29 others wounded, security and medical officials said.
In Sarha, militants mounted a coordinated pre-dawn assault on the village involving gunmen and a suicide truck bomb, and were in control of it as of noon today, according to Lieutenant General Abdulamir al-Zaidi, head of a northern Iraq security command, and Shallal Abdul, mayor of the nearby town of Tuz Khurmatu.
Sarha lies close to the town of Sulaiman Bek, which has repeatedly been targeted in the past year by militants who have sought to take control of the area.
The latest move is a small-scale version of the ongoing, months-long crisis being played out in Iraq's western Anbar province, where militants hold major territory.
Clashes initially broke out early morning in the Sarha region, which lies in Salaheddin province, between anti-government fighters and police manning checkpoints, and an explosion was set off at a bridge in the area as well, according to Abdul.
Shortly thereafter, a suicide bomber set off a truck rigged with explosives near an army base where police and military forces were conducting a senior meeting, killing two people and wounding seven others.
