Baghdad: At least 17 people were killed and 23 wounded in a new wave of attacks Saturday across Iraq, including in the volatile province of Anbar, police said.
Four soldiers were killed and two members of a government-backed Sahwa paramilitary group wounded when gunmen using mortars and machineguns attacked their base in Albu Delma, northwest of the provincial capital city Ramadi, some 110 km from Baghdad, Xinhua reported.
In a separate incident, anti-government gunmen attacked an army patrol in al-Houze district in Ramadi, leaving three soldiers killed after they destroyed their vehicle.
Elsewhere, a fierce clash erupted between a commando force and gunmen, believed to be linked to al Qaeda militant group, Al-Garma town, near militant-seized city of Fallujah, some 50 km west of Baghdad, killing seven gunmen.
Five civilians were wounded when several mortar rounds landed in the town of al-Saqlawiyah, just north of Fallujah.
Separately, a policeman was critically wounded when a sticky bomb attached to his car was detonated in the town of Baghdadi near the city of Heet, some 160 km from Baghdad.
Six civilians and two members of Sahwa paramilitary group were wounded by a roadside bomb explosion at a checkpoint manned by the Sahwa members in Abu Ghraib area, some 25 km west of Baghdad.
In Baghdad, four people were wounded when a roadside bomb exploded at an intersection in Adhamiyah district in the northern part of the capital, while two civilians were wounded in a blast of a sticky bomb attached to their car in eastern Baghdad.
In Diyala province, two civilians were shot dead and another wounded in two attacks by gunmen near the provincial capital city of Baquba, some 65 km from Baghdad.
An armed man was killed in a clash with a security force near the town of Udheim, some 50 km north of Baquba.
According to the UN Assistance Mission for Iraq, a total of 8,868 Iraqis, including 7,818 civilians and civilian police personnel, were killed in 2013, the highest annual toll in years.
