Bombings at two locations in northern Iraq killed at least 30 people on Wednesday at an army recruiting centre in Hawijah and 28 near a police station in Tikrit, officials said.
A remote-controlled car bomb was used in Tikrit, while the attack in Hawijah was believed to be the work of a suicide bomber with an explosives belt.
Police sources in Tikrit said the car bomb exploded early in the morning at a square where labourers were gathering. An earlier report on al-Jazeera television said a nearby police station was the target.
Three car bombings were reported in the capital, employing both remote-controlled devices and suicide bombers.
Eight people, all civilians, were killed in Baghdad. The attacks in the capital and north of the country injured more than 130 people.
The onslaught came as the United States military pressed its offensive in western Iraq to interrupt what it says is a flow of insurgents and materiel from Syria into Iraq. About 1 000 US soldiers are engaged in the operation, one of the largest in recent months.
Hospital sources in the border city of Qaim said the hospital received on Wednesday 15 bodies of civilians killed during the clashes that have been running for the past four days.
A doctor said the dead included children.
The national broadcaster al-Iraqiya reported on Wednesday that more than 100 gunmen have been killed since the start of hostilities last Saturday. The report said three US soldiers have also died in the clashes.
Meanwhile, relatives of the kidnapped Anbar province Governor Raja al-Nawaf said on Wednesday that his kidnappers linked his release with halting military operations in Qaim. Nawaf was kidnapped with four of his bodyguards on Tuesday.
In another development, Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari commissioned Environment Minister Narmin Othman to take the post of the minister of human rights in addition to her environment post, after the minister assigned to the human rights post withdrew hours after his appointment earlier this week.
Hashim al-Shibli, a former justice minister, withdrew from the government in protest at what he considered the ”sectarian way” it is made up. — Sapa-DPA