According to Iraqi officials, 21 militants and two soldiers were killed in clashes that broke out on Saturday in Anbar, where government forces have been battling al-Qaeda-linked militants over the past months.
The fighting erupted after security forces launched an operation in the al-Hamira area, south of the provincial capital Ramadi.
In Baghdad, twin bomb blasts ripped through busy commercial streets in the neighborhood of Dora, leaving four people dead.
Police said the morning attacks followed three bomb blasts in the same area that killed five people and wounded 10 overnight.
Also on Saturday, at least four soldiers were killed and six others wounded when a bomb attack targeted an army base in Mishahada, some 30 kilometers (20 miles) north of Baghdad.
Separately, a roadside bomb killed two soldiers and left five people injured in Tarmiyah, 50 kilometers (30 miles) north of Baghdad, while bombings in the capital itself took the lives of at least two people.
More than 450 people have been killed in Iraq in April alone.
According to figures released by the United Nations, at least 8,000 people lost their lives in the country last year -- the highest death toll since a peak of violence in Iraq in 2007.
The upsurge in violence comes as Iraqis prepare for the country’s first parliamentary elections since the US withdrawal in late 2011. The vote is scheduled to be held on April 30.
Follow us on Telegram
t.me/apanewsaz
Follow us on Instagram
Follow us on Facebook
Follow us on Twitter
