A spate of more than a dozen bombings during morning rush hour across Iraq on Monday killed 24 people and wounded dozens others.

A spate of dozens car bombs during morning rush hour across Iraq on Monday killed 24 people and wounded dozens others.

AFP quoted officials as saying that “vehicles packed with explosives were detonated in the northern disputed cities of Kirkuk and Tuz Khurmatu, the central city of Samarra, and the cities of Hilla and Nasiriyah south of Baghdad.

In all, at least 24 people were killed and almost 200 wounded, according to security and medical officials.

The deadliest attacks were in Baghdad, where six car bombs struck in five neighborhoods across the capital despite tougher checkpoint searches and heightened security.
   
11 people were killed and 57 wounded in the capital, security and medical officials said, and an AFP journalist reported that officials in a tow truck were checking for suspicious vehicles in central Baghdad in the wake of the violence.

In Tuz, which lies 175 kilometers (110 miles) from Baghdad, three car bombs struck in the centre and east of the town minutes apart from around 8:00 am
(0500 GMT), killing six and wounding 60, according to a provincial council member and a doctor.

And in Kirkuk, five people were killed and 26 wounded by another trio of car bombs, provincial health chief Sadiq Omar Rasul said.
  
Explosions elsewhere in Iraq killed one person and wounded 69 people.