Wave of Attacks in Iraq Leaves at Least 57 Dead Leaves at Least 57 Dead

At least 57 people were killed in the attacks and over 100 wounded.

Coming a little less than two weeks after the Iraqi government said it would negotiate with the United States about keeping some of its 48,000 troops here after the end of the year, the violence raised significant questions about the capabilities of the Iraqi security forces.

The violence touched nearly every region of the country, except for Kurdistan, and appeared to be targeted at both Sunni and Shiite areas.

The most lethal attack occurred in the city of Kut, south of Baghdad, where a series of explosions inside the city’s main market around 8 a.m. killed 35 people and wounded 71, according to a local security official.

“I heard the sound of the explosion when I was walking towards the market,” said Fathel Kadhem, 27, the owner of a candy store in Kut. “I went running to see what’s going on and another explosion happened.”

He added: “I saw all the people that got hurt and they were all young men.

Ahmed Abdul-Razzaq, a 35-year-old who sells produce in Kut, was wounded in the second explosion and blamed the local security forces for the attack.

“The market is blocked off and no cars are supposed to get in,” he said, adding that the car had been parked inside the market since Sunday night.

“I was there helping the injured people but five minutes later the second explosion went off. This is all because of the government’s neglect. I wonder how this car got in? It was only the police who could have allowed it in.”

The attack in Kut was Iraq’s deadliest since July 5, when nearly three dozen people were killed in the city of Taji, north of the Iraqi capital.

Violence had appeared to be trending down. In July, 178 people were killed in Iraq, excluding the semi-autonomous region of Kurdistan, according to statistics complied by the Interior Ministry. That marked a significant decrease from June, when 342 people were killed and in May 321 were killed.

No group claimed responsibility for the attacks, although they had the hallmarks of Al Qaeda in Iraq, which typically uses suicide bombers.

A spokeswoman for the U.S. military in Iraq said they had not received any reports of attacks on American forces.

“We’re trying to keep up with the news pouring out from Iraqi media about attacks in most of the major cities today, mostly VBIEDs,” the spokeswoman said, referring to military’s acronym for car bombs.

In Diyala Province, north of Baghdad, there were at least a dozen explosions, killing 6 people and wounding 29, according to a local security official. One of the explosions went off near the convoy for the mayor of Baquba, the capital of Diyala, injuring the mayor and three of his guards. Gunmen attacked two checkpoints in Baquba, killing five Iraqi security forces.

Two suicide bombers in Salahuddin Province, which borders Diyala, attacked an Iraqi counter-terrorism unit in the city of Tikrit, killing 3 security officers, including a high ranking member of the counter-terrorism unit, and wounding at least 10 people, according to a security official.

Meanwhile, two car bombs were detonated in the southern Iraqi city of Najaf, killing 8 and wounding 20, according to a health official. And there was violence in the capital, Baghdad, too. A car bomb was detonated near a government convoy in the neighborhood of Mansur, wounding five people, including two security guards, according to security officials.