Series of deadly attacks strike Iraq

At least 28 people have been killed in bomb and gun attacks across Iraq, police and medics have said.

In Muqdadiya, north of the capital Baghdad, 11 people were killed when a car bomb exploded at a mourning ceremony. As survivors gathered to evacuate the wounded, a suicide bomber blew himself up, police said on Thursday.

In a separate attack, a suicide car bomb in Fallujah killed two people and wounded five, according to local security officials.

Al Jazeera’s Jane Arraf, reporting from Baghdad, said the attack took place at the main gate of the Fallujah police directorate.

Security forces targeted

In the northwest of the country, unknown gunmen shot dead 14 members of the Iraqi security forces, including 11 who guarded oil pipelines, security and medical sources said.

The attack by the unidentified group took place on a road between Haditha and Baiji, about 200km north of Baghdad.

Three soldiers were also among the dead.

Iraq has seen a surge in violence since the beginning of the year, coinciding with ongoing uprising in Syria that analysts and diplomats say have boosted recruitment to Sunni groups and given them room to manoeuvre.

The country is also struggling with a political deadlock and months-long protests by country’s Sunni Arab minority.