Baghdad — Iraqi soldiers killed more than 40 militants in clashes near Baghdad on Thursday, April 3, as anti-government fighters edged close to the capital just weeks before national parliamentary elections.

The firefight was the latest in a surge in bloodshed over the past year, amid fears insurgents could seek to destabilize the April 30 polls by upping the pace of attacks with violence already at its worst since 2008.

On Thursday morning, militants attacked an army camp in Yusifiyah, just southwest of Baghdad, an interior ministry statement said.

More than 40 insurgents died in the ensuing battle, with one army officer also killed.

“Iraqi security forces confronted a failed attempt by Da’esh gang members to break into a military camp,” the statement said, referring to the Arabic abbreviation for the powerful Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham (ISIS) jihadist group.

“The security forces… killed more than 40 terrorist attackers, and the attack resulted in the death of one of our officers when he was confronting these criminal gangs.”

The clashes in Yusifiyah come after days of fighting in the Zoba and Zaidan areas west of Baghdad.

The fighting spurred concerns that militants who have for months controlled the city of Fallujah, a short drive from Baghdad, could be looking to open a new front to encroach on the capital itself.

Elsewhere Thursday, a series of attacks nationwide, including four car bombs, killed eight people, security and medical officials said.