Iraq bomb blasts kill more than 50

Series of deadly explosions rip through cities across the country, ending period of relative calm during holy month of Ramadan

Bomb blasts ripped through more than a dozen Iraqi cities on Monday morning, killing 56 people in a wave of violence that shattered what had been a relatively peaceful holy month of Ramadan. The violence struck from the northern city of Kirkuk to Baghdad and the southern Shia cities of Najaf, Kut and Karbala. The devices used included a combination of parked car bombs, roadside bombs and a suicide bomber driving a vehicle that rammed into a police station. The scale of the violence – seven explosions occurred in several towns in Diyala province alone – highlight the ability of insurgents to carry out attacks despite repeated crackdowns by Iraqi and US forces. Thirty-five people were killed in the southern city of Kut, 100 miles south-east of Baghdad, where construction workers were gathered in a market selling appliances. A police spokesman, Lieutenant Colonel Dhurgam Mohammed Hassan, said the first bomb went off in a freezer. Then as rescuers and onlookers gathered, a parked car bomb exploded. Officials said 64 were injured in the blasts. In Diyala province, seven bombs struck in the capital of Baquba and towns nearby. Five soldiers were killed in Baquba; six people were killed in other attacks around the province. Just outside the holy city of Najaf, a suicide car bomber ploughed into a checkpoint outside a police building. Officers opened fire on the vehicle when the driver refused to stop and the vehicle exploded. Four people were killed and 32 injured in the blast. Among the dead were two policemen. Outside Karbala, a parked car bomb targeting a police station was reported to have killed three officers and injured 14 others. In Tikrit two men wearing explosive belts drove into a heavily guarded government compound wearing military uniforms. The men parked their vehicle and then walked to a building housing the anti-terrorism police. When the men approached the guards ordered them to stop and then opened fire. One bomber was immediately killed but the other managed to get inside the building before blowing himself up and killing three people. Ten people were also injured in the attack. In Kirkuk, one person was killed when a motorbike bomb exploded. Thirty minutes earlier in the city a car bomb blew up outside a police patrol, injuring four officers. Some 30 minutes later one person was killed when a motorbike bomb exploded. Late on Sunday, four blasts damaged a Syrian Orthodox church in Kirkuk. In Baghdad, eight were wounded when a parked car bomb exploded near a convoy carrying officials from the ministry of higher education. The blasts were the first major act of violence since Iraq's political leaders announced this month that they would begin negotiations with the US over whether to keep a small number of American forces in the country past 31 December. The last such single bombing spree occurred on 5 July, when 37 people were killed in an explosion in Taji, north of Baghdad. US forces plan to leave the country by the end of this year but officials from both sides have expressed concern about the ability of Iraqi forces to protect the country.