Several killed in attacks in western Iraq
Syrian truck drivers and policemen shot dead and five others kidnapped in separate attacks in western Anbar province.
At least six people were killed and five others kidnapped in separate attacks in Iraq’s western Anbar province, officials have said.
Three Syrian truck drivers were among those killed in Sunday’s attacks, and three policemen were among those kidnapped, the officials said.
Police and a local administrative official said that armed men shot dead the truck drivers and set their vehicles on fire near the town of al-Rutba, close to the Syrian border.
A civilian and a policeman were kidnapped from the site where the truck drivers came under attack, while armed men abducted two more policemen and a civilian from a site north of al-Rutba.
A medical official in hospital in al-Rutba confirmed to AP news agency that they had received three bodies.
It was unclear if the same group of fighters carried out all the kidnappings.
In a separate incident, an army lieutenant colonel was shot dead in the city of Fallujah, and a sniper killed a soldier east of the city, officials said.
In another attack in Fallujah, armed men killed a cousin of the provincial chief of Anbar and wounded his wife.
Iraq has been hit by a wave of violence that killed more than 600 people in May, raising fears of all-out sectarian conflict.
Violence has fallen from its peak in 2006 and 2007, when more than 1,000 people were killed in some months, but death tolls have started to rise again.