Iraqi security forces stand guard in the holy city of Najaf, on September 30, 2014. The holy Shiite city of Najaf has gained prominence as a centre of political and military power since the start of a crisis that has raised the spectre of Iraq breaking up along sectarian and ethnic lines. (Haidar Hamdan/AFP/Getty Images)

A spate of attacks killed more than a dozen people in and around Baghdad today. Among the dead were 10 soldiers and a policeman.

No one has claimed responsibility for the attacks, but there have been a number of suicide attacks since the Islamic State, a Sunni-led militant group, started fighting to take territory across Iraq and Syria earlier this year.

Besides the trouble around Baghdad, there has also been violence in the northern part of Iraq. There the fight is complicated by the divisions between Arabs and Kurds, who feel the Arabs are sympathetic to the militant group, ISIS.

NPR’s Leila Fadel joins Here & Now‘s Robin Young from Erbil, Iraq to discuss these complicated ethnic tensions.

• Earlier NPR Coverage: Ill-Equipped And Underpaid, Kurdish Fighters Hold ISIS At Bay

Guest

• Leila Fadel, international correspondent for NPR. She tweets @LeilaFadel.