Suicide bombers kill 14 in attacks on army bases near Baghdad

37 others were wounded in the attacks.

BAGHDAD: Suicide bombers killed 14 members of Iraq's security services and wounded 37 in attacks on army bases north of Baghdad on Tuesday, police and medical sources said.

Iraq is suffering from its worst surge in violence in at least five years with insurgents stepping up bombing campaigns against security forces and civilians.

In the first set of attacks, two bombers detonated in quick succession at an intersection between the towns of Taji and Tarmiya, around 25 km north of the Iraqi capital, killing eight Iraqi soldiers and wounding 26.

Later on Tuesday two more suicide bombers targeting another army base in a village outside Taji killed six police and wounded 11, police and medics said.

Thousands of Iraqis have been killed since the start of the year and the attacks, some claimed by al Qaeda, have been fuelled by the civil war in neighbouring Syria.

Iraqi security forces have been struggling to contain the violence since US troops withdrew in December 2011.

The capital and its outskirts have been hit by almost daily attacks. On Monday two bombs exploded outside a Baghdad cafe, killing 17 people and wounding 37, while a suicide bomber blew himself up at a police checkpoint in the northeast of the capital, killing three officers.