BAGHDAD, Aug. 16 (Xinhua) -- A slew of coordinated bombings struck more than a dozen Iraqi cities and towns on Thursday, killing at least 51 people and wounding about 200.
The fresh violence came ahead of the Eid, a Muslim holiday that marks the end of the holy month Ramadan amid intensified security measures. The carnage highlighted the tenuous security situation in the war-torn Iraq.
No one has so far claimed credit for the fresh attacks, though the coordinated bombings bear the hallmark of Al-Qaida group.
The capital Baghdad was hit in the morning by a car bomb explosion near a government real estate office in the mainly Shi' ite district of Husseiniyah in northern Baghdad, leaving six dead and 32 wounded. Another car bombing wounded seven people in Taji area, some 20 km north of Baghdad.
Earlier in the day, in the oil-rich city of Kirkuk, some 250 km north of Baghdad, four car bombs detonated in Almas and Arfa districts, both in northern Kirkuk, including a successive attack near a police station.
In a separate incident, a suicide bomber drove and detonated his explosive-laden car into a security center belonging to Kurdish security members, also known as Asaish, in the town of Daquq, just south of Kirkuk. Minutes later, a roadside bomb went off near the first scene, targeting the building of anti-crime office.
A provincial police source put the toll from the attacks in Kirkuk and Daquq at eight dead, half of them are security members, and 31 injured including policemen.
Meanwhile, six attacks struck outskirts of the Diyala's capital city of Baquba, some 65 km northeast of Baghdad, killing a total of nine people and injuring 10 others.
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