At least 44 killed, 190 others wounded in spate of explosions across Iraq

Explosions rocked Iraqi towns on Tuesday killing as many as 44 people and wounding up to 190 others, police and hospital sources said.

A car bomb targeting a police patrol in Mahmudiya in the south killed three people and wounded 12, while a car bomb blast near a convoy carrying the governor of Anbar province killed one of his security men and wounded eight other people, according to Reuters.

At least 14 other explosions hit various Iraqi cities and towns earlier on Tuesday, extending a spate of militant violence ahead of next week’s Arab League summit in Baghdad.

In Baghdad, a car bomb exploded in the parking lot opposite the foreign ministry, security and medical officials said.

The deadliest attack was in the southern Shiite holy city of Karbala, where two explosions killed at least 13 people and wounded 48, the sources said. 

Another big attack occurred in the northern city of Kirkuk, where nine people were killed and 42 others wounded, according to Dr Mohammed Abdullah at Kirkuk hospital, AFP reported.

“We have also received parts of bodies, but we do not know who they belong to,” Dr Mohammed Abdullah at the city’s hospital said.

A car bomb in the central town of Hilla, south of the capital, killed two people and wounded 31 others, provincial security committee chief Haidar al-Zambur said. The toll was confirmed by Ali Mohammed at Hilla hospital.

A car bomb set off by a suicide attacker in central Baghdad killed two people and wounded eight, security and medical officials said.

Separate gun and bomb attacks in Salaheddin province killed two people, including a city councilor, police said.

Bombings in the refinery town of Baiji, and the northern towns of Daquq and al-Dhuluiyah left 17 people wounded.

The attacks come on the ninth anniversary of the beginning of the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq which ousted Saddam Hussein, and just days before Baghdad hosts an Arab League summit, the first meeting of the 22-nation body to be held in the capital since Saddam’s 1990 invasion of Kuwait.

Violence across the country is down from its peak in 2006 and 2007, but attacks remain common. A total of 150 Iraqis were killed in February, according to official figures.