Iraqi judge killed, suicide attack claims seven

BAGHDAD — A suicide bomber driving a vehicle packed with explosives blew himself up outside the offices of a major Kurdish party in northern Iraq early Wednesday, the deadliest in a wave of morning attacks that killed at least 31 people across the country.

A suicide bomber blew himself up inside a Shiite mosque in central Iraq on Thursday, killing 10 people, amid nationwide violence that left 16 dead, including senior police and army officers.The violence comes with just months to go before US troops must withdraw completely from the country, and as a series of American officials have passed through Baghdad this month to press Iraq to decide on whether it wants an extended US military presence.

A suicide bomber blew himself up among a crowd of police recruits in the Iraqi city of Tikrit on Tuesday, killing 50 people and wounding 150, an interior ministry official said.The blast was the deadliest to hit Iraq since an October 31 siege at a Baghdad church left 53 people dead, and was the first major attack in the country since the formation of a new government on December 21."Fifty people were killed and 150 wounded by a suicide bomber at a police recruitment centre in Tikrit," the official said in Baghdad, speaking on condition of anonymity.

A suicide bomb in the centre of the Sunni Arab former rebel bastion of Fallujah on Sunday killed six people, including three Iraqi soldiers, an interior ministry official said.The blast occurred at around 5:45 pm (1445 GMT) near a popular restaurant in the city centre as a company of Iraqi soldiers was on patrol, the official said.Fourteen other people were wounded in the attack, including three soldiers.

A suicide bomber blew up a vehicle at an Iraqi army checkpoint in Baghdad on Friday killing five people, including three soldiers, and wounding 18 others, an interior ministry official said.The attack struck at 7:00 am (0400 GMT) in Ghazaliyah, a Sunni majority neighbourhood and former stronghold of insurgents in the west of the capital.Although overall levels of violence in Iraq have fallen markedly since their peak in 2006 and 2007, deadly attacks against civilians and security forces in Baghdad occur almost every day.

More than a dozen bomb attacks in and around Baghdad on Sunday left at least 19 people dead, including 12 people killed in a suicide attack, and more than 80 wounded.The series of attacks comes just days after blasts against police in a tense northern city killed 29 people, with just months to go before all US forces must withdraw from Iraq amid questions over whether local security forces are up to the task of maintaining stability in the war-wracked country.

More than a dozen bomb attacks in and around Baghdad on Sunday left at least 18 people dead, including 12 people killed in a suicide attack, and 80 wounded.The series of attacks comes just days after blasts against police in a tense northern city killed 29 people, with just months to go before all US forces must withdraw from Iraq amid questions over whether local security forces are up to the task of maintaining stability in the war-wracked country.

More than a dozen bomb attacks in and around Baghdad on Sunday left 13 people dead, including seven policemen killed in a suicide attack, and 65 wounded.The series of attacks come just days after blasts against police in a tense northern city killed 29 people, with just months to go before all US forces must withdraw from Iraq amid question marks over whether local security forces are up to the task of maintaining stability in the war-wracked country.