Iraqi soldier and family die in bombings

Multiple attacks kill at least a dozen people, including a soldier and his entire family.

Fighting in Anbar has displaced more than 140,000 Iraqis according to the UN [EPA]

A double bombing killed a soldier and his entire family in their home while they slept, according to Iraqi authorities.

The attack early on Saturday destroyed the house in Muqdadiyah, 90km north of the capital Baghdad, as the soldier, his wife and their four children were sleeping.

Hospital officials confirmed the casualties to the news agency Associated Press news agency. 

In a separate incident, five people from the same family died after three mortar bombs hit the Shia village of Jaizan near Baquba, northeast of Baghdad.

Police said at least six people were killed in that attack. Two women and a boy were among the victims.

Violence in Iraq has killed about 800 people so far this month. 

Anbar displacement

A spokesman for the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, Peter Kessler, said on Friday that violence in Iraq’s Anbar province had led to the the largest displacement in the country since the sectarian violence of 2006-2008.

More than 65,000 people fled the province in the past week alone, he added.

Since late December, fighters from the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) have taken over parts of Ramadi, the provincial capital, and parts of Fallujah.

Source: Reuters