A car bomb blast in Baghdad, shootings killed 35 people

A swift series of bombings and shootings killed 35 people across the Iraqi capital early Today in attacks that mostly appeared to target police, officials said.

In the worst attack, a car bomb went off near a security checkpoint in Baghdad's downtown shopping district of Karradah killing nine people. Twenty-six people were wounded in that attack, including four policemen, the officials said.

A news agency’s footage of the scene showed blood-covered people walking away, and storefronts at several nearby shops were damaged. A gray cloud of smoke hung over the blast site where cars were charred and crumpled.

At least eight more bombs exploded during the morning across Baghdad, killing 18 more people.

And on opposite sides of the capital, gunmen with silenced pistols killed a total of eight policemen at security checkpoints, officials said.

The casualties were confirmed by Baghdad hospital officials. All officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorised to release the information.

The violence did not stop at Baghdad. Attacks in Baqouba, Kirkuk and in Salahuddin provinces were also reported in the relentless string of assaults that unfolded over a two-hour period.

Officials in Baqouba, 35 miles (60 kilometres) northeast of the capital, said a suicide bomber blew up his car outside a police station near a market. Two people were killed and eight wounded.

In the ethnically mixed city of Kirkuk, 180 miles (290 kilometres) north of Baghdad, two police patrols hit roadside bombs. Twenty policemen were injured in the attacks, said police Major General Sarhat Qadir.

Bombs in the town of Tuz Khormato outside Kirkuk, wounded three guards outside the office of a Kurdish political party. And south of Baghdad, eight policemen were wounded by a roadside bomb in the town of Madain, said Mayor Jalal Baban. Madain is about 14 miles (20 kilometres) southeast of the capital.

Widespread violence has decreased since just a few years ago when Iraq teetered on the brink of civil war. But bombings and deadly shootings still happen almost daily.

Iraq's police are generally considered to be the weakest element of the country's security forces. Earlier this week, 20 policemen and recruits were killed by a suicide bomber outside the Baghdad police academy that angry residents blamed on political feuding that is roiling Iraq.

The country has been besieged by political turbulence that began the day after US troops pulled out of Iraq, when an arrest warrant was issued for Sunni Vice President Tariq al-Hashemi on charges he commandeered death squads targeting security forces and government officials.

Al-Hashemi, the country's highest-ranking Sunni, has denied the charges that he described as politically motivated, and blamed the Shi’ite-led government of trying to unseat him.

Experts worry the case will hike Iraq's already-simmering sectarian tensions.

Al-Qaeda's Iraq franchise claims Iraq bombings

Al-Qaeda's Iraq franchise claimed responsibility for a wave of bombings last week that killed scores of people and heightened sectarian tensions days after the withdrawal of US troops.

The self-proclaimed "Islamic State of Iraq," inspired by the late Osama bin Laden, issued a statement Monday referring to "Thursday's Invasion" and vowing to protect Iraq's Sunni Muslims from an "Iranian project."

"With permission from Allah and his guidance, the Islamic State of Iraq knows where and when to strike," the group said in a statement posted on jihadist forums, according to the US-based SITE Intelligence Group.

"The mujahideen (holy warriors) will never stand with their hands tied while the pernicious Iranian project showed its ugly face and what it wants with Sunnis in Iraq became obvious and exposed."

Iraq's Sunni Muslims have long viewed mostly Shiite Iran and its growing ties with Baghdad's Shiite-led government with suspicion.

The statement referred specifically to a suicide car bombing in the Karrada district of Baghdad, part of a wave of attacks on Thursday that killed 60 people and wounded nearly 200 amid a deepening political row.

The attacks were the deadliest in four months, and came days after Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki, a Shiite, demanded that autonomous Kurdish authorities in the country's north hand over Sunni Vice President Tareq al-Hashemi, accused of heading a death squad.

Hashemi has denied the allegations, in a crisis that threatens a coalition government that has loosely united the country's Shiites, Sunnis and Kurds following the withdrawal of US troops earlier this month.

Al-Qaeda in Iraq played a central role in the sectarian violence that gripped the country in 2006 and 2007, before Sunni tribes and militias allied with US troops -- then numbering some 170,000 -- suppressed the radical Islamist group and dramatically reduced the bloodshed.

Recent attacks -- including a suicide bombing of the interior ministry in Baghdad on Monday -- have rekindled fears of sectarian violence in the wake of the US withdrawal, carried out according to a 2008 agreement with Baghdad.

Wave of bombings across Iraqi capital kills 23

A series of blasts on Thursday morning in Baghdad killed at least 23 people and injured dozens more in a coordinated attack designed to wreak havoc across the Iraqi capital.

The blasts were the worst violence to hit the country since a political crisis between Iraq's Sunni and Shiite factions erupted this weekend. The political spat, which pits Iraq's Shiite prime minister against the highest-ranking Sunni political leader, has raised fears that Iraq's sectarian wounds will be reopened.

Iraqi officials said at least nine blasts went off early Thursday morning in neighborhoods around the city.

The worst attack was in the al Amal neighborhood where seven people were killed in a blast that appeared to target rescuers and officials who came to the scene after a previous explosion. At least four people were killed in one western Baghdad neighborhood when two roadside bombs exploded.

All the information came from police and hospital officials who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the media.

In the southwestern neighborhood of Karrada, where one of the victims was killed, sirens could be heard as ambulances rushed to the scene and a large plume of smoke rose over the explosion site.

While Baghdad and Iraq have gotten much safer over the years, explosions like Thursday's are still commonplace. They come at a precarious time in Iraq's political history.

The government of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki has accused the Sunni Vice President Tariq al Hashemi of running a hit squad that targeted government officials. Al Maliki is also pushing for a vote of no confidence against another Sunni politician, the deputy prime minister Saleh al Mutlaq.

Many Sunnis fear that this is part of a wider campaign to go after Sunni political figures in general and shore up Shiite control across the country at a critical time when all American troops have left Iraq.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the morning's violence. But the coordinated nature of the assault and the fact that the attacks took place in numerous neighborhoods suggested a planning capability only available to al Qaida in Iraq.

The Sunni militant organization is severely debilitated from its previous strength in the early years of the war, but is still able to launch coordinated and deadly assaults from time to time.

US military officials have said they're worried about a resurgence of al Qaida after the American military leaves the country. If that happens, it could lead Shiite militants to fight back and attack Sunni targets, thus sending Iraq back to the sectarian violence it experienced just a few years ago.

A Car bomb kills 10 in north of Baghdad

A car bomb in a market in confessionally mixed Diyala province, north of Baghdad, killed 10 people and wounded at least 20 on Thursday, medical and security officials said.

"We counted 10 bodies and at least 20 wounded in the explosion of a car bomb parked near a vegetable market in Khalis," an Iraqi Army colonel said, speaking on condition of anonymity.

The casualty toll was confirmed by a medic at the main hospital in the Diyala provincial capital, Baquba.

"We received 10 bodies and admitted 25 wounded. Two policemen were among them," said Dr Firaz al-Dulaimi.

The deaths came just weeks before US troops are due to complete a withdrawal from Iraq that has raised concerns about the ability of Iraqi forces to maintain security.

The end-of-year pullout brings to a close an almost nine-year war that has left thousands of American soldiers and tens of thousands of Iraqis dead, and cost hundreds of billions of dollars.

Violence has declined nationwide since its peak in 2006 and 2007, but attacks remain common. A total of 258 people were killed in October, according to official figures.