16/04/2014 19:22
Violence surges in Iraq's Anbar province
At least 18 people, including two soldiers, have been killed in separate attacks in Iraq's volatile western province of Anbar, medical and security officials have said, in a surge in violence before parliamentary elections, Al Jazeera reported.
At least 16 civilians were killed when mortar shells landed upon houses in Fallujah, a key city of Sunni-dominated Anbar, said Ahmed al-Shami, spokesman for the Fallujah Hospital, on Wednesday.
Fifteen others were wounded in the shelling that hit several districts of Fallujah, the scene of months of fighting between government troops and armed rebels, al-Shami told independent website al-Sumaria News.
It was not clear who fired the shells.
Meanwhile, twin suicide bombings in Ramadi city left at least two soldiers dead and five injured, police said, according to the DPA news agency. There were reports as many as eight had been killed.
The apparently synchronised attacks targeted a military command building in the area.