Iraq attacks kill 14 people, most security personnel

Attacks in Iraq, including a suicide bombing near the provincial council headquarters in the battleground city of Ramadi, killed 14 people Tuesday, most of them soldiers and police, officials said. In Ramadi, the capital of Anbar province west of Baghdad, a suicide bomber detonated an explosives-rigged vehicle near the council headquarters, killing three soldiers and wounding at least four. Since early January, anti-government fighters have occupied shifting areas of Ramadi and also control the city of Fallujah to its east -- a major security challenge for the government. In the north, gunmen attacked a police checkpoint in a village west of the oil refinery town of Baiji, killing four police and wounding three. And in Nineveh province, separate bombings killed two police and wounded four, while a roadside bomb in the Tuz Khurmatu area killed one civilian. In the capital, a car bomb in the city centre killed at least four people and wounded at least 13. The deaths came after violence killed 35 people on Monday. Iraq has been hit by a year-long surge in bloodshed that has reached levels not seen since 2008, driven by widespread discontent among the Sunni Arab minority and the civil war in neighbouring Syria. The unrest has killed more than 660 people since the beginning of the month, and over 1,650 so far this year, according to AFP figures based on security and medical sources.