Wave of deadly bombings in Iraq

More than 30 people have been killed and dozens injured in a series of bomb attacks across Iraq.


There have been several blasts in Baghdad, including one in which 15 people died. At least 15 were killed in a suicide attack in Kut in the south.

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One person was killed by a car bomb in Kirkuk, and there were explosions in Basra, Ramadi and Karbala.

The violence comes ahead of the withdrawal of US combat troops at end of the month.

In Baghdad, a suicide car bomb hit a police station in the north-east of the city, killing 15 people, with 58 injured, most of them police, while a parked car bomb in the centre of the city near the Muthana Airport Highway killed two people and injured seven.

There were three other explosions, in Haifa Street, in Karrada, and in Ahmeriya, injuring 11 people.

In other incidents:

in Kut, south of Baghdad, a suicide car bomber attacked a police station, killing at least 15 people and injured 84
in Kirkuk, a car bomb killed one person and injured eight
in Basra, a car exploded as police towed it from a parking lot, killing one person and injuring eight
in Ramadi, a car exploded as alleged bombers were working on it, while a second car exploded about 1km away, injuring 12 people
in Karbala, a suicide car bomb exploded at police checkpoint at the entrance to police station, injuring 30 people.
No groups have yet claimed they planned the attacks, although the BBC's Hugh Sykes in Baghdad says the attacks are likely to be linked to a branch of al-Qaeda in Iraq.

Violence in Iraq is down from the peak seen during the sectarian conflict in 2006-2007, although the number of civilian deaths rose sharply in July.

Almost daily attacks on Iraqi forces and traffic police in Baghdad and Anbar province, west of the capital, killed more than 85 people in the first three weeks of August.

On Tuesday, the US military said the number of US troops in Iraq had fallen to 49,700, ahead of a 31 August deadline for US combat operations to end.

The remaining US troops will continue in Iraq until the end of 2011 to advise Iraqi forces and protect US interests.

They will be armed, but will only use their weapons in self-defence or at the request of the Iraqi government, and will work on training Iraqi troops and helping with counter-terrorism operations, the US military said.

Iraq's top army officer recently questioned the timing of the pull-out, saying the country's military might not be ready to take control for another decade.

Meanwhile, Iraqi politics has remained deadlocked five months after national elections, with no new government yet in place.