At least 20 people were killed in a new suicide car bombing in Baghdad on Thursday, one day after up to 150 people died in a series of car bombings, local police said.
The dead included at least 15 police officers and five civilians, while another 21 people were injured, the BBC reported.
The attack occurred in the Dora district in the south of the capital. The bomber drove his car into a convoy, hitting a lorry carrying the police officers, reports said.
Security measures were taken in many of Baghdad’s thoroughfares following the morning attack. A number of roads and bridges leading to government and United States buildings were blocked.
In a separate attack, two police officers were killed and another four were injured when an improvised explosive device detonated while their patrol was passing by in the Askari neighbourhood of Kirkuk on Thursday.
Captain Farhad Talabani, of the city police, said three of the injured police officers are in a serious condition.
In Baquba, one police officer was killed when gunmen attacked the headquarters of the quick-intervention police force in Buhriz, 4km south of Baquba.
Also in Baquba, two separate explosions took place injuring five police officers, including a colonel. Tight security measures were imposed on the city following the incidents.
In Ramadi, clashes broke out on Thursday morning in number of neighbourhoods between US and Iraqi forces and insurgents.
Ziad Tareq of the police said that at least two civilians were killed in the clashes in the Industrial neighbourhood. He also said a roadside bomb detonated while a US patrol was passing by in Sufiya, 1km east of Ramadi, and that two Humvees were destroyed.
He said there were casualties among the American forces.
Tareq said that clashes also started in the Agricultural, Abu Farraj and Tamim neighbourhoods of Ramadi. He said insurgents were taking to streets in scores while helicopters were flying at low altitudes.
He also said that movement in the city came almost to a standstill while clerics at the mosques called for people to donate blood as number of injured civilians reporting to hospitals was increasing.
Last week, Minister of Defence Sadoun al-Dulaimi threatened to launch military operations in Ramadi, Samara and other cities where insurgents were active. Dulaimi gave the ultimatum while his and US forces were initiating an operation in the northern city of Tal Afar.
In Fallujah, a gunman threw a hand grenade on an Iraqi army patrol in the middle of the city, killing two soldiers, said eyewitnesses.
The witnesses said another soldier was seen being evacuated to hospital from the scene of the blast.
In Hillah, police uncovered bodies of four civilians who were kidnapped on Wednesday on the main highway between Baghdad and Hillah.
A police source said among those found is the body of Mahdi al-Attar, a prominent member of the Dawa party headed by Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari. — Sapa-DPA