At least 52 people have been killed and 250 others injured in separate incidents in Iraq in less than 24 hours
At least 52 people have been killed and 250 others injured in separate incidents in Iraq in less than 24 hours.
In the deadliest attack on Sunday, two car bombs exploded in a market near the shrine of Imam Ali al-Sharqi in south Iraq, a security official said. Dr Ali al-Alaa, a Maysan province health department official, said the blasts killed 14 people and wounded 60.
Before midnight on Saturday gunmen opened fire on an Iraqi army checkpoint near Balad north of Baghdad and shortly later a roadside bomb exploded when additional soldiers arrived. Eleven soldiers, including two officers, were killed and eight others wounded, an army colonel and a medical source at Balad hospital said.
A police captain was also shot dead on Saturday night in the town of Garma, security and medical officials said.
Early Sunday morning a car bomb exploded in a car park at the rear gate of the state-owned North Oil Company, about 15 kilometres (nine miles) from the northern city of Kirkuk, killing seven people and wounding 17 others, police and Dr Othman Abdul Rahman said.
The victims were seeking to join a force that guards oil facilities, a police officer said.
In Kirkuk itself, two bombings killed three people and wounded 70 others, police and Dr Mohammed Abdullah said.
A car bomb seriously wounded six soldiers west of Kirkuk, according to army Captain Taha Khalaf, while another in Hawija, also west of the city, wounded two people, security and medical sources said.
Three car bombs exploded in Taji, north of Baghdad, killing one person and wounding at least seven others, an interior ministry official said and a medical source said.
And five roadside bombs exploded in and around Baquba, killing a soldier and wounding 17 others, a police colonel and a doctor said.
In Nasiriyah, 305 kilometres (190 miles) south of Baghdad, a bomb exploded around 9:00 am (0600 GMT) on Sunday near the French honorary consulate, causing material damage and wounding an unspecified number of people, a French diplomat said.
Meanwhile, a car bomb exploded in front of a hotel in Nasiriyah, killing two people and wounding two others, according to the head of the Nasiriyah hospital Ahmed Abdul Saheb and a security source.
Attacks in Tuz Khurmatu, 175 kilometres (110 miles) north of Baghdad killed four people, including a police captain and wounded 31, among them a police second lieutenant, its mayor Shalal Abdul and police Lieutenant Colonel Khaled al-Bayati said.
In the southern port city of Basra, a car bomb in a market killed three people and wounded at least 20 others, police and a medical official said.
In Tal Afar 380 kilometres (240 miles) northwest of Baghdad, a car bomb exploded about 8:30 am (0530 GMT) killing two people and wounding seven, police First Lieutenant Abed Ghayib and Dr Waad Mohammed from Tal Afar hospital said.
And south of Samarra, a city north of Baghdad, another car bomb killed two police, including Colonel Thair Idris, and wounded two others, a police lieutenant colonel and a medical source said.
