Prime Minister
Nouri al-Maliki... Prime Minister of Iraq and the secretary-general of the Islamic Dawa Party....
, who is seeking a third term in office, has been held responsible by critics for the deterioration in security but he has blamed external factors such as the civil war in neighboring Syria.
In Tuesday's deadliest attack, gunnies opened fire on a bus transporting soldiers from the restive northern town of Suleiman Bek, according to local official Talib Mohammed al-Bayati.
Eight soldiers were killed and four were maimed, he said. The soldiers had been heading off on leave at the time.
Elsewhere, a vehicle rigged with explosives was set off by a suicide kaboomer in Salaheddin province, killing three soldiers and wounding seven.
Violence in Iraq is at its highest level since 2008, when the country was just emerging from a brutal Sunni-Shiite confessional war that killed tens of thousands of people.
The authorities have trumpeted wide-ranging operations against snuffies and say that external factors are responsible for the surge in bloodshed.
But analysts and diplomats say the Shiite-led authorities must also do more to reach out to disgruntled minority Sunnis in order to undermine support for militancy.