A pre-dawn assault on an army camp guarding an oil pipeline in northern Iraq has left 15 soldiers dead, security and morgue officials say.
The soldiers were killed on Tuesday near Hamam al-Alil, in the northern province of Nineveh, one of the most violent parts of the country, with provincial capital Mosul as well as surrounding areas suffering near-daily attacks.
The style of the attack, targeting a station housing security forces guarding an important piece of infrastructure, mirrored that of a similar shooting in the northern town of Tuz Khurmatu on Sunday in which six policemen were killed.
The latest bloodshed is part of a protracted surge in violence that has sparked concerns Iraq is slipping back into the all-out conflict that plagued it in 2006 and 2007, with government figures showing that more than 1000 people were killed last month alone.
