Iraq violence: At least 53 dead and scores injured
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A series of violent attacks across Iraq have killed at least 53 people and left scores wounded.
Several bombs exploded in the northern, ethnically mixed city of Kirkuk, while other blasts took place in and around the capital, Baghdad.
Many of the attacks targeted security forces and police.
The upsurge in violence coincides with the Eid al-Fitr holiday, which marks the end of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.
Authorities are trying to thwart further possible attacks as crowds gather in public places such as parks, shrines and mosques to celebrate the holiday.
Officials said more than a dozen explosions and shootings took place across Iraq.
Eleven people were killed and 41 wounded in an explosion near an ice cream shop in Baghdad’s Sadr City district on Thursday evening.
Scores are also reported to have died after a car bomb went off in the capital’s Zafraniya district.
In Kirkuk, 290km (180 miles) north of Baghdad, four bombs were planted near the house of a military officer, the city’s police commander Brig Gen Sarhad Qadir told the Associated Press.
The officer was unharmed but his brother was killed in the attack, while six other members of his family were injured, the news agency reports.
Worsening violence
At least seven people were killed and about 30 injured in a car bombing in the Husseiniyah district of Baghdad, officials said.
In Daquq, a town in Kirkuk province, seven policemen died when a suicide bomber blew himself up at a counter-terrorism department’s compound, AFP reports.
Gunmen in cars opened fire on an Iraqi army checkpoint near the northern town of Mishada, killing seven soldiers and wounding eight, according to Associated Press.
It also says at least seven people died after a suicide bomb attack in a teashop in the city of Tal Afar, some 420 km (260 miles) northwest of the capital.
Other attacks were reported in al-Garma, Tuz Khurmatu, Dibis, Fallujah and Baquba, officials said.
There has been a marked increase in violence in the country in recent months amid worsening political tensions.
The violence is thought to be linked to Sunni groups trying to undermine the Shia-led government.
More than 300 people died in attacks across Iraq in July – the highest monthly death toll since August 2010, according to government figures.
Although the violence is still below that seen at the height of Iraq’s civil war in 2006 and 2007, it has been growing again since US troops withdrew last December.
Source: BBC
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