71 killed in wave of suicide bombings
At least 71 people have been killed and scores injured in a series of suicide bombings in Iraq today.
In the latest violence, at least five suicide bombs went off as insurgents stepped up their campaign of terror.
The bloodiest attack came in Tikrit - Saddam Hussein's home town - when a bomber drove his loaded vehicle into a crowded market place near a police station. At least 33 people were killed and more than 60 injured in the blast which hit mainly Shi'ite migrant workers from southern Iraq who had gathered to look for work.
"What I saw was a tragedy," said Ibrahim Mohammed, a migrant worker from Kut. "Some people were burned, some were ripped to pieces." Further north in Hawija, near the city of Kirkuk, a man strapped with explosives detonated his bomb as he stood in a queue of people waiting outside a police and army recruitment centre, killing at least 32 people and wounding 25.
Police Sergeant Khalaf Abbas, said: "I was near the centre and all of a sudden it turned into a scene of dead bodies and pools of blood."
In the Baghdad suburb of Dora a car bomb exploded near a police station, killing three civilians and wounding nine.
And in New Baghdad, an eastern area of the capital, a car bomb was detonated just 100 yards from a police patrol, killing two officers and a civilian, said Lt Col Ahmed Aboud.
The fifth blast was at the Iraqi oil ministry in Baghdad. There are no casualties reported.
Yesterday, a car bomb struck in Baghdad, killing seven, and the governor of the western province of Anbar, Raja Nawaf Farhan al-Mahalawi, was kidnapped. The bomb hit the business district, where 17 people were killed by a bomb on Saturday.
A second car bomb wounded six officers at another police station in Baghdad. The violence has killed 400 Iraqis in the last two weeks. Insurgents have also k idnapped more foreign hostages, including Japanese security contractor Akihiko Saito, snatched on Sunday.
US military officials said they have killed up to 100 insurgents since Operation Matador was launched on Saturday.
At least three US Marines have been killed in the offensive, which was hunting followers of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, leader of al Qaeda in Iraq. It comes as President Bush was granted $82 billion (£44 billion) by Congress for military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan.
