BAGHDAD: Attacks killed eight people across Iraq yesterday.
The violence, Iraq’s worst since 2008, has been primarily driven by discontent in the minority Sunni Arab community, which alleges mistreatment at the hands of the Shia-led government and security forces, and by the civil war raging in neighbouring Syria.
Yesterday’s attacks came on the 11th anniversary of the beginning of the US-led invasion that ousted now-executed dictator Saddam Hussein, illustrating the high level of violence that has plagued Iraq for much of the aftermath of his downfall.
The violence struck on the outskirts of Baghdad, north of the capital in Salaheddin and Kirkuk provinces, and in the western city of Ramadi, killed eight people. Security forces also found the body of a policeman, security and medical officials said.
In Ramadi, a city that government forces wrested from partial militant control earlier this year, a roadside bomb killed four policemen who were on patrol.
Security forces regained control of Ramadi after anti-government fighters overran parts of the Anbar provincial capital, as well as all of the nearby city of Fallujah, in January.
Attacks in Hawijah, Sharqat, Madain and Abu Ghraib left four people dead, while the corpse of a police intelligence officer who had been kidnapped two days earlier was found in Siniyah.
AFP
