At least a dozen people were killed in Iraq Sunday from bomb attacks in Kirkuk and Sulaiman Bek, according to Agence France Presse.
In Kirkuk, a suicide car bomb attack at a road checkpoint left seven policemen dead. Another 11 were also wounded. Gunmen in the area killed another three people.
In the Sulaiman Bek area north of Baghdad, gunmen attacked a police officer's home, leaving the officer's father and brother dead and wounding two others in the house. A militiaman near the home was also shot by the gunmen.
Sectarian tension has largely spiked ahead of the late April parliamentary elections where Shiite leadership is running for re-elections.The elections are the first general polls that will take place since the departure of American forces from the country.
More than 315 people have been killed in April thus far, and more than 3,000 people have been killed since the beginning of the year.
