Gunmen ambushed an Iraqi army checkpoint in northern Iraq today, killing 12 soldiers and wounding one, in one of the deadliest single attacks in months against the US-trained Iraqi forces.
In more bloodshed that has pushed Iraq close to sectarian civil war, bomb and mortar rounds aimed at mosques killed nine people in and near Baghdad, while in the south gunmen sprayed a minibus with machinegun fire, killing five Shia pilgrims.
Scores have been killed in sectarian violence between the Shia majority and Sunnis over the past week in Baghdad and Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki has urged Iraqis to rally behind his national reconciliation plan as their last chance for peace.
Gunmen in four cars and armed with rocket-propelled grenades and machineguns attacked an army checkpoint in the town of Rashad near Kirkuk, 250 km (155 miles) north of Baghdad, Iraqi army Major General Anwar Hamad Ameen said.
"This area is a stronghold for Takfirists and terrorists," Major Ameen said.
Takfirists is a term used to describe al-Qaeda-linked Islamist extremists. The Defence Ministry confirmed the incident, one of the worst setbacks in months for the U.S.-trained Iraqi forces that Washington hopes will take on most security tasks to allow for the withdrawal of the roughly 140,000 US-led troops in Iraq.
Attacks on checkpoints are a common tactic by Sunni insurgents. In March, about 100 Qaeda guerrillas attacked a police post and jail in Miqdadiya, northeast of Baghdad, killing at least 22 people, mostly policemen, and freeing more than 30 prisoners.