At least 16 killed as bombers target Iraq security forces

At least 16 people have died after a series of bombings targeted security forces in northern Iraq, as the country prepares for a crucial election later this month.

In the deadliest attack, a parked car exploded as a joint Iraqi army and police patrol passed through a busy commercial area in Mosul, killing five civilians and five security personnel, a police officer said, adding the blast wounded 12.

Mosul is located about 225 miles northwest of Baghdad.

Hours earlier, a suicide car bomber drove his vehicle into a security checkpoint in the northern town of Dibis, killing six people and wounding 15, police said. Civilians were among the victims, but a breakdown of the casualties was not immediately available.

Dibis is located near the city of Kirkuk, 180 miles north of Baghdad.

Violence has escalated in Iraq over the past year, with 2013 seeing the highest death toll since the worst sectarian bloodletting in 2007, according to UN figures.

More than 8,800 people were killed in violence last year.

No one immediately claimed responsibility for the attacks, but suicide bombings and well co-ordinated attacks are a hallmark of local al-Qaeda breakaway group, Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant.

Sunni insurgent groups have escalated attacks across the country since last year in bid to undermine the Shia-led government.

The attacks happened just weeks before parliamentary elections are scheduled to be held on April 30th, the first such vote since US forces left Iraq.

There will be no voting in parts of western Anbar province, where security forces are fighting Islamic militants and fighters who control the provincial capital, Ramadi, and nearly all of the nearby city of Fallujah.

Press Association