Attacks in Iraq killed 10 people on Tuesday, including eight security personnel, officials said, the latest casualties in a country-wide spike in violence that the government has failed to stem.

Iraq is mired its worst violence since 2008, a surge in bloodshed that has killed more than 5,500 people this year despite several major military operations and tightened security measures.

In the northern province of Nineveh, two separate roadside bombs targeting army patrols killed three soldiers and wounded four others.

In Mosul, a policeman and a militant were killed in a shootout at a checkpoint, and a policeman was shot dead in a separate incident, police and a doctor said.

And a car bomb targeting a police patrol in west Mosul wounded five people, including a policeman.

Just north of Baghdad, the local head of an anti-Qaeda militia and his son were killed by gunmen, officials said.

From late-2006 onwards, Sunni tribal militias, known as the Sahwa, turned against their co-religionists in Al-Qaeda and sided with the US military, helping to turn the tide of Iraq's bloody insurgency.

But Sunni militants view them as traitors and frequently target them.

In the disputed northern city of Kirkuk, a car bomb near Iraq's main Turkmen television station killed a civilian and wounded five others, while an off-duty policeman was shot dead while driving in the capital.

Iraq has seen mounting violence this year, coinciding with demonstrations by Sunni Muslims against alleged ill-treatment at the hands of the Shiite-led government and security forces.

Violence so far this year has left more than 5,500 people dead, the country's worst violence since 2008, when it was emerging from a brutal sectarian war in which tens of thousands were killed.

In addition to major security problems, the government has failed to provide adequate basic services such as electricity and clean water, and corruption is widespread.

Political squabbling has paralysed the government, while parliament has passed almost no major legislation in years.