ISIL 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 militants of the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant 
(ISIL) 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.
Shootings and bombings on Friday 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 (0900 GMT) on Friday, 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 Friday 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.
The two killed were police Brigadier General Ragheb al-Timimi and his deputy Colonel Jawad Mohammed, while the wounded included three police and four soldiers.
Suicide bomber hits funeral
Elsewhere in Salaheddin, gunmen killed five policemen and wounded five others in an attack on a checkpoint outside Samarra, while three other policemen were killed by a roadside bomb targeting their patrol in Siniyah.
In Anbar province, where militants have held key territory for more than two months, a suicide bomber blew himself up in the middle of a funeral taking place inside a mosque in provincial capital Ramadi, killing six people.
Security forces have since managed to wrest back control of most of Ramadi, but a stalemate has persisted in Fallujah, with soldiers staying on the periphery of the city and periodically shelling what they say are militant strongholds.
No group has immediately claimed responsibility for Friday's bloodshed, but Sunni militants including those linked to the powerful Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant terrorist group are typically blamed for attacking security forces and carrying out suicide bombings.
More than 300 people have been killed so far this month and upwards of 2,000 since the beginning of the year, according to AFP figures based on reports from security and medical sources.
