56 killed in multiple blasts in Iraq

Bomb blasts ripped through more than a dozen Iraqi cities this morning, killing 56 people, most of them in the southern city of Kut, in a wave of violence shattering a relatively peaceful holy month of Ramadan.

The violence struck from the northern city of Kirkuk to the capital of Baghdad to the southern Shiite cities of Najaf, Kut and Karbala, and emphasised the persistent ability of insurgents to wreak havoc at a time when Iraqi officials are weighing whether they are able to protect the country without the assistance of American troops.

The blasts were coordinated to go off in the morning and included a combination of parked car bombs, roadside bombs and a suicide bomber driving a vehicle that rammed into a police station.

The scope of the violence, seven explosions went off in different towns in Diyala province alone, emphasised the still dangerous ability of insurgents to coordinate and carry out attacks despite repeated crackdowns by Iraqi and US forces.

The worst violence came in the southern city of Kut, 160 kilometers southeast of Baghdad, where twin explosions went off as construction workers were gathered in a market selling generators and other appliances.

Police spokesman Lt Col Dhurgam Mohammed Hassan said the first bomb went off in a freezer used to keep drinks cold. Then as rescuers and onlookers gathered, a parked car bomb exploded.

The head of the provincial security committee in Wasit province, Shamil Mansour, said 35 people were killed; another official put the number of injured at 64.

In Diyala province, seven bombs went off in the capital of Baquba and towns nearby, said Faris al-Azawi, the spokesman for the Diyala health directorate. Five soldiers were killed in Baquba while five people were killed in other attacks around the province.

Just outside the holy city of Najaf, a suicide car bomber plowed his vehicle into a checkpoint outside a police building, said Luay al-Yassiri, head of the Najaf province security committee.

Police opened fire on the vehicle when the driver refused to stop at the checkpoint, and then the vehicle exploded. Al-Yassiri said four people were killed and 32 injured; among the dead were two policemen and two civilians.

Just outside Karbala, a parked car bomb targeting a police station killed three policemen and injured 14 others, according to two police officers.

In the northern city of Tikrit, two men wearing explosives belts drove into a heavily guarded government compound wearing military uniforms which helped them avoid notice by the guards, said Mohammed al-Asi, the provincial spokesman.

In the northern city of Kirkuk, a car bomb exploded next to a police patrol this morning, injuring four police officers.

Then about thirty minutes later one person was killed when a motorcycle with a bomb planted inside it exploded.

In Baghdad, a parked car bomb exploded near a convoy carrying officials from the Ministry of Higher Education, said police and health officials. Eight people were wounded, the officials said, speaking on condition of anonymity.