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Iraq attacks kill five, one month before elections

The violence came hours after seven soldiers were shot dead at a checkpoint in a late-night attack by militants in the north.

Attacks in Iraq killed five people Sunday, exactly a month ahead of parliamentary polls that remain in disarray after the mass resignations of election commissioners last week.

The violence came hours after seven soldiers were shot dead at a checkpoint in a late-night attack by militants in the north, the latest sign of a months-long surge in bloodshed that has killed nearly 500 people so far this month.

The unrest has been driven principally by anger over alleged mistreatment at the hands of authorities, as well as by the civil war raging in neighbouring Syria.

A suicide bomber detonated a vehicle packed with explosives on a major bridge in Ramadi, a city west of Baghdad where security forces are still grappling to retain full control after militants took over several neighbourhoods two months ago.

The blast killed three people and wounded five, and also badly damaged the Hauz Bridge, a key crossing used by civilians connecting the north and south of the city.

Ramadi originally had five bridges across the Euphrates River before a militant surge earlier this year.

But two are used exclusively by security forces, and two others — including the Hauz Bridge — have been damaged to the point they can no longer be used.

Civilians in Ramadi are now able to use only the Albu Faraj bridge in the north of the city.

Ramadi is the capital of Anbar province, a desert region in west Iraq that shares a border with Syria.

In early January, anti-government fighters seized control of parts of the city as well as all of nearby Fallujah, also in Anbar.

But while security forces have managed to take back most of Ramadi, a stalemate persists in Fallujah, which remains in militant control.

Elsewhere on Sunday, two police officers were killed by a roadside bomb that exploded near their car in Tikrit north of Baghdad.

The attacks came just hours after militants opened fire on an army checkpoint near the restive northern city of Mosul, killing seven soldiers in a late-night attack.

In Mosul city itself, gunmen also killed a doctor.