BAGHDAD — Police officials say gunmen have kidnapped eight Iraqi policemen who were guarding a post on the main highway to Jordan and Syria.

Two officials say the abductions happened Saturday on the desert road west of Baghdad.

Violence has spiked in Iraq in recent days, with bombings and other attacks killing scores of Sunni and Shiite civilians. Sunni discontent with the Shiite-dominated government is also high, raising fears of a return to the widespread sectarian bloodshed of 2006-2007 that brought the country to the edge of civil war.