A wave of attacks and clashes involving security forces and protesters have killed dozens of people in Iraq, officials have said.

Iraqi forces on Tuesday stormed a Sunni Muslim protest camp near in the town of Hawija, near Kirkuk, triggering a gunfight between troops and demonstrators.

The fighting was the bloodiest Iraq has seen since thousands of Sunnis started staging protests in December to demand an end to marginalization of them by Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki's Shia-led government.

Throughout the day, mortar attacks, bombs and gunmen also killed at least 21 worshippers as they left two Sunni mosques in Baghdad and another in Diyala province in the north, according to police and medical sources.

There were no apparent links between the attacks and the clashes at the protest camp.

PHOTO CAPTION

Map of Iraq locating the town of Hawija, near Kirkuk

Al-Jazeera