At least 73 Iraqis were killed and more than 120 wounded on Wednesday in a string of bomb attacks in northern Iraq and Baghdad, security officials said.
The bloodshed came as a 1 000-strong United States force backed by aircraft battled insurgents in the west of the country, in an operation that the military said has killed up to 100 rebels.
A car bomb killed 38, mostly civilians, and wounded 84 in a busy market area of Tikrit, the hometown of ousted Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein, about 180km north of Baghdad.
In Hawijah, north-east of Tikrit, a suicide bomber wearing a belt of explosives struck outside an army recruitment centre, killing 32 and wounding 28, the army and medical sources said.
And in Baghdad, at least three people were killed and 10 wounded in two separate explosions, one of them outside Dura police station in the south of the city, police said.
In other violence, two Iraqi soldiers were killed and five wounded in a drive-by shooting in western Baghdad, an interior ministry official said.
Security forces carried out a controlled explosion on Wednesday to destroy a bomb planted near the oil ministry in central Baghdad, the ministry’s spokesperson said.
Insurgents have stepped up their attacks this month since Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari formed Iraq’s first democratically elected government in more than half a century.
Since the beginning of May, more than 400 people have been killed in car bombings and other attacks. — Sapa-AFP