Shelling and bombings across Iraq killed 15 people today as militants bombed a key bridge linking the capital to north Iraq, the latest in a surge of nationwide violence.
The latest bloodshed, which pushed the death toll for January to more than 800, comes just months ahead of parliamentary elections slated to take place on April 30, and has stoked fears Iraq is slipping back into all-out conflict.
Faced with a weeks-long standoff in Anbar province west of Baghdad and Iraq's worst protracted unrest since 2008, authorities have been urged by foreign leaders to pursue political reconciliation in a bid to undercut support for militants.
But Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki has taken a hard line, and officials have trumpeted security operations.
Shelling began late on Friday in the south Fallujah neighbourhood of Nazal and continued into the early hours of Saturday, killing eight people, including a young child, and wounding seven, said Doctor Ahmed Shami at the city's main hospital.
Residents of the city on Baghdad's doorstep blame the army for the shelling. Defence officials insist the military is not responsible.
Security officials meanwhile said they killed 20 militants in the Albu Faraj area near Anbar provincial capital Ramadi, according to a report broadcast on state TV.
Fallujah and parts of nearby Ramadi have for weeks been in the hands of anti-government fighters, including the al-Qaeda-linked Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL).
It is the first time militants have exercised such open control in Iraqi cities since the peak of the violence that followed the 2003 US-led invasion.
Fighting erupted in the Ramadi area on December 30, when security forces cleared a year-old Sunni Arab protest camp.
The violence then spread to Fallujah, as militants moved in and seized the city and parts of Ramadi after security forces withdrew.
