36 killed in wave of Iraq blasts

More than 20 bombs hit cities and towns across Iraq on Thursday, killing at least 36 and wounding more than 100, police and hospital sources said.

In Baghdad, three car bombs, two roadside bombs and one suicide car bomb hit areas in what looked like coordinated attacks, killing 15 people and wounding 61, the sources said.

Two car bombs and three roadside bombs aimed at police and army patrols in the northern oil city of Kirkuk killed eight people and wounded 26, police and hospital sources said.

"I was trying to stop traffic to let a police patrol pass. When it passed, a car bomb exploded and I fell on the ground and police took me to the hospital," a policeman wounded in the face and chest told Reuters as doctors tended his wounds. He declined to be named.

HEALTH MINISTER TARGETED

Some critics say the government is not doing enough to stem the threat from militants.

"They are saying they are changing security plans, they are redeploying troops but it is like they are changing the decorations only," Ali Al-Haidari, an Iraqi security expert, told Reuters.

"Is there any new technology, any new laws supporting the security process? The answer is no. The natural result for that is there are gaps here and there."

The biggest attack in Baghdad was in the Kadhimiya district, where a car bomb killed five and wounded 24, sources said.

A car bomb targeting the health minister's motorcade went off in the central Haifa district, killing two civilians and wounding at least four of the minister's guards, a police source said. His spokesman said five guards were wounded in the attack.

Car and roadside bombs also went off in Baghdad's Amil, Palestine Street and Zaafaraniya districts.

Elsewhere in northern Iraq, two car bombs targeting Sahwa militia went off in Samarra, two blasts hit Baquba, a roadside bomb exploded in Mosul and another  roadside device exploded in Taji.

There were also shooting incidents and one policeman was killed in the town of Hadid, 10 kms west of Baquba, when gunmen opened fire on the station where he worked from a passing car, police sources said.
In the province of Anbar in the west, two car bombs targeting police killed four and wounded 10 in Ramadi while a roadside bomb wounded four people in Falluja.