DHAKA: The Authorities of Iraq said more than 100 people were killed Friday in fighting between security forces and al Qaeda-backed Sunni fighters.

The fighting follows news a day earlier that militants tried to take control of the city of Samarra to the south, violence spurred in part by an escalating conflict between Iraq's majority Shiite government and a Sunni minority who claim they are disenfranchised.

The violence has left hundreds dead in recent months, raising fears it could return Iraq to the level of violence in 2006 and 2007, when bodies littered the streets.

Nearly 500,000 people are estimated to have been displaced this year in fighting, primarily in the Sunni-dominated Anbar province, the United Nations refugee agency said Friday.

But that number is expected to climb, said Adrian Edwards, the spokesman for the U.N. High Commissioner on Refugees.

On Friday, Hares Hammadi al-Bajari was among dozens trying to flee the fighting in Mosul, where militants were attacking police stations and security checkpoints.

Scores more were killed when gunmen and several suicide bombers attacked an Iraqi munitions storage in western Mosul, security forces said.

By nightfall, Iraqi security forces had retaken control of a number of the police stations and checkpoints, authorities said.

The fighting in Mosul mirrored an attack a day earlier in Samarra, when gunmen attacked security checkpoints and took control of portions of the city.

Source: CNN

BDST: 1211 HRS, JUN 07, 2014