At least 24 Iraqis were killed and 37 injured in separate insurgent attacks in and around the capital Baghdad on Wednesday, witnesses and police sources said.
Seven of the victims died and 13 were injured in simultaneous bomb blasts close to the city-centre Technical University, where an explosives-laden car detonated at the same time as two roadside bombs nearby.
Many shops and cars in the vicinity were severely damaged. The bomb victims were meanwhile taken to nearby hospitals.
Seven more Iraqis were killed and 11 others injured when gunmen attacked a marketplace in Alwat al-Rasheed south of Baghdad, a police source said.
Three civilians, two policemen and two gunmen were killed in the attack, the source said.
Four more policemen were killed in an insurgent ambush on their convoy in the Rasheed district, south of Baghdad.
In a separate attack, gunmen in western Baghdad opened fire on the legal advisor of the Interior Minister, General al-Haqouqy Abdel Hussein, killing him and injuring two of his guards.
Meanwhile, eyewitnesses said that anonymous leaflets were distributed in the Doura district of southern Baghdad, urging the residents to evacuate their homes to allow for armed attacks against US and Iraqi troops.
Elsewhere in Iraq five civilians were killed on Wednesday and another 11 injured when an explosive device was detonated outside the city court in Kirkuk, 250km north of Baghdad, said a security source.
The source said that police forces sealed off the site of the blast while ambulances rushed the casualties to the local hospital. – Sapa-DPA