Waves of bomb attacks throughout Iraq continue

Security tightens across Iraq after current spate of bombings A fresh spate of attacks in Baghdad and north of the capital killed at least 37 people on Monday, security and medical officials said, in an updated toll of earlier attacks At least 74 people have been wounded in the shootings and bombings, over the past two days, totalling at least nine separate attacks, some of which involved coordinated explosions, shattering a relative calm in recent weeks.
Attacks rattled war-ravaged Iraq on Sunday as the Islamic holy month of Ramadan got underway, killing at least 30 people and injuring scores of others. The official told the Xinhua news agency on condition of anonymity that the attacks, which took place in a crowded market, also caused damage to nearby shops, vehicles and residential buildings.
No one has so far claimed responsibility for the incidents and investigations are underway, said the official.
As many of the injured are in a serious condition, the death toll may rise, he said.
Elsewhere, two attacks in Iraq's eastern Diyala province killed five people and injured three others on Sunday, the local police said.
Police said the first attack occurred near a checkpoint, some 60km off Baquba, capital city of Diyala province, when a roadside bombing killed three Iraqi army personnel, including an officer, and injured two others.
In a separate attack, two policemen were killed and a third wounded in an armed attack on a checkpoint some 70km off Baquba.
No one has so far claimed responsibility for both incidents and investigations are underway, said the police source.
Earlier on Sunday, at least five people were killed and 14 wounded in a car bomb explosion in the holy Shiite city of Najaf, south of Baghdad.
The attack occurred in the morning when a booby-trapped car went off outside a popular restaurant in central Najaf, some 160 km south of Baghdad.
The powerful blast destroyed parts of the restaurant and badly damaged several nearby shops and other buildings, the source said.
On the same day, a car bomb attack occurred near a police office in Mosul city in the country's northern part, killing one police personnel and injuring 10 others, including several policemen.
Violence in Iraq has ebbed from its climax in 2006 and 2007, when sectarian conflicts pushed the country to the brink of a civil war, but tensions and sporadic attacks are still common across the country.
Al-Qaida's Iraqi branch on Sunday announced online that the terror group has been planning more attacks in Iraq.