Fresh violence erupted in Iraq on Monday as a Salvation Front member, an academic, a policeman and two civilians among 18 were killed in separate incidents, while clashes between security forces and militants claimed more lives on both sides.
In an act of violence reported by Voices of Iraq (VOI) news agency, referring to local authorities, a group of unknown gunmen shot dead Sheikh Atallah Iskandar Habib, a member of the pro-government Kirkuk Salvation Front, and his driver. The gunmen set their bodies on fire at the scene of the attack in southern al-Huweija, a mainly Sunni Arab district.
Separately, a lecturer at Basra University in southern Iraq was ambushed and shot dead near his home by an unidentified armed group earlier Monday. In a village near Baquba, 60 kilometres north of Baghdad, a civilian was killed by gunfire while another was killed in a mortar shelling, whose source remains unknown. A policeman was also killed and two were wounded in an attack on their patrol in a nearby town. In another development, four policemen were reported killed. Two militants, meanwhile, were gunned down during similar clashes in Beyji, 200 kilometres north of Baghdad.
-dpa