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Seventeen soldiers and policemen were killed and 12 others were wounded in separate overnight attacks targeting security forces across Iraq, police said Saturday.
Clashes and bomb attacks between gunmen and Iraqi security forces erupted in Jurf al-Sakhar area south of Iraq's capital Baghdad, leaving five soldiers killed and seven others wounded, a local police source told Xinhua on condition of anonymity.
In Salahudin province, five policemen were killed and two wounded when gunmen attacked a police force on a highway near the city of Baiji, some 200 km north of Baghdad, a provincial police source told Xinhua.
In a separate incident, gunmen attacked a minibus on a main road near Salahudin's provincial capital city of Tikrit, some 170 km north of Baghdad, killing four soldiers and injuring three others, the source said.
Meanwhile, a police colonel was shot dead by gunmen in the centre of Tikrit city, the source added.
Also in the province, an off-duty soldier and a policeman were shot dead separately by gunmen near their homes in the city of Shirqat, some 280 km north of Baghdad, he said.
Iraq is witnessing its worst violence in recent years. According to the UN Assistance Mission for Iraq, a total of 8,868 Iraqis, including 7,818 civilians and civilian police personnel, were killed in 2013, the highest annual death toll in years.
