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Seven killed in Iraq attacks

Arab World Materials 14 February 2013 16:21 (UTC +04:00)

Seven people were killed Thursday in attacks in northern and central Iraq, police said, dpa reported.

A Kurdish man was shot dead by unknown gunmen near his house in the northern city of Mosul. In al-Ayadiye, west of Mosul, two policemen were killed in a bomb attack.

In Dujail, some 65 kilometres north of the capital Baghdad, one man was killed and seven injured when an explosion hit a vehicle transporting farm workers.

Two members of the pro-government Sunni Sahwa militia were killed in nearby Yathrib when insurgents attacked their checkpoint. One of the gunmen was also killed.

Iraq has witnessed near-daily attacks since US troops withdrew in December 2011, raising fears of a return to the sectarian tensions that drove the country close to civil war in 2006 and 2007.

The recent spike in violence comes amid a widening crisis between the Shiite-led government and the country's formerly dominant Sunni minority.

Thousands of Sunni protesters have been rallying for nearly two months against Shiite Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki, demanding a repeal of laws they claim target Sunnis.

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