Iraqi forces killed four militants and ended a hostage crisis after attackers stormed a Baghdad government building on Thursday. With elections looming, the attack takes January's death toll past 900.
The brazen assault on a building in the north-east of the capital comes as security forces grapple with intensifying violence and an extended standoff with anti-government fighters in the western province of Anbar.
It is likely to raise fresh concerns about the capabilities of Iraq's security forces amid fears that the polls on 30 April could be partially delayed, as was the case for provincial elections in April 2013.
Police at the scene said six militants wearing suicide vests tried to storm the building, which hosts a state-owned company, by blowing up a minibus rigged with explosives at the main gate.
When the explosion did not go off, one of the attackers blew himself up to clear the way for his fellow militants, followed by a second bomber who set off his vest at an inner gate.
The four remaining fighters then took hostages in the building for several hours before they were killed by security forces, said Brigadier General Saad Maan, an interior ministry spokesman.
At least two non-militants were killed in the attack, including a policeman, and eight others wounded, said Maan. A police colonel and an interior ministry official confirmed both the account and the death toll.
"At the time of the attack, the employees in the building behaved very wisely and shut all their doors," Maan said. "They kept all the employees inside. The whole operation is now finished, everything is under control."
Security forces sealed off the area, which is home to other government offices, including the headquarters of the transport ministry and a human rights ministry building.
Elsewhere in the Iraqi capital on Thursday, bombings near a market and a restaurant in the Shia-majority districts of Kasra and Talbiyah killed six people, officials said.
They struck hours after car bombs ripped through Baghdad Jadidah, Shuala and Talbiyah, which are predominantly Shia, leaving nine people dead on Wednesday evening.
Attacks were also recorded in the capital's outskirts on Wednesday, as well as the northern cities of Mosul and Tuz Khurmatu, killing seven others.
No group claimed responsibility for the ministry assault and the bombings, but Sunni militants affiliated with the al-Qaida-linked Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant have mounted similar attacks in Baghdad.
