Checkpoint attacks kill 7 Iraq security personnel

Apparently-coordinated attacks on army and police checkpoints in the Baghdad area killed at least seven members of Iraq's security forces on Wednesday, officials said. Gunmen attacked three checkpoints in Baghdad, while a roadside bomb exploded near a fourth in Tarmiyah, north of the capital. The Baghdad shootings killed at least two soldiers and four police, while at least one soldier died in the Tarmiyah blast. Thcheckpoint attacks followed a series of nine bombings that hit six different areas of the capital earlier on Wednesday, killing a least 14 people and wounding more than 70. Iraq has been hit by a year-long surge in bloodshed that has reached levels not seen since 2008, driven by widespread discontent among the country's Sunni Arab minority and by the bloody civil war in neighbouring Syria. Violence in Iraq has killed more than 1,800 people since January 1, according to AFP figures based on security and medical sources.