Shelling and bombings across Iraq killed 15 people on Saturday as militants bombed a key bridge linking the capital to north Iraq, the latest in a surge of nationwide violence.
Shelling and bombings across Iraq killed 15 people on Saturday 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 f
or 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.
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. Defense 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.
Violence on Saturday also struck in the capital, and north of Baghdad.
A mortar attack in Jaizan, a village just north of the confessionally-mixed city of Baquba, killed six people and wounded two others, security and medical officials said.
Among the fatalities were two women and a young boy.
Separate car bombs in two neighbourhoods of Baghdad left one person dead and more than a dozen wounded.
Militants also bombed a major bridge north of the capital that is a key through fare linking Baghdad to Kirkuk and the northern Kurdish region, officials said.
The blast, which completely destroyed a 20-metre (yards) section of the bridge, did not cause any fatalities but five people were wounded when their car careened off it immediately following the explosion.
