Attacks in Baghdad and north Iraq killed five security personnel and a civilian on Sunday, officials said, part of a nationwide surge in violence that authorities have failed to stem. The shootings and bombings were the latest in months of unrelenting bloodshed, Iraq's worst since 2008, and come despite wide-ranging operations targeting militants and tightened security.
In northern Nineveh province, a suicide bomber drove through a police checkpoint and detonated a car rigged with explosives, killing two policemen and wounding three others and a civilian who was nearby, security and medical officials said.
The bombing struck the Shia Turkmen city of Tal Afar.
Also in Nineveh, gunmen opened fire on an army checkpoint in the provincial capital Mosul, killing two soldiers. And an election commission worker was gunned down elsewhere in Mosul. In south Baghdad, a roadside bomb targeting a police patrol killed a police major and wounded three policemen, officials said.