Nearly 100 killed, 340 injured in Iraq attacks (Third Lead)

BAGHDAD - Nearly 100 people were killed and around 340 injured in a series of bombings and armed attacks across Iraq Monday that the government described as an attempt to destabilise the country.

The police, army and witnesses confirmed attacks in various parts of the country, in the deadliest wave of violence in Iraq so far this year. Most of the dead were civilians.

The worst attacks occurred in the city of Hilla, some 100 km south of the capital Baghdad, medics and witnesses said.

Terrorists first set off two car bombs outside a textile factory, then, as doctors arrived at the scene to help the wounded, a suicide bomber blew himself up. Local media reported that 55 people were killed and 22 injured in the attacks.

“The car bombs targeted the buses carrying the workers home as they left the factory,” said Faleh al-Amri, who witnessed the attacks.

In the town of Suwaira, south of Baghdad, 13 people were killed in bomb attacks on a mosque and a market.

In the southern port city of Basra, 10 people were killed and 16 injured when a bomb exploded, eyewitnesses said.

Shortly afterwards another bomb exploded in a poor neighbourhood of the town, injuring 11 people, police said.

In the city of Fallujah, some 60 km west of Baghdad, four people were killed and 10 injured in a series of bombings targeting the homes of police officers.

Several soldiers and police officers were killed in attacks on street check points in Baghdad, the al-Yaqen news agency reported.

Two members of the Kurdish Peshmerga security forces were killed, and several injured, in a suicide bombing in the northern city of Mosul, army sources said.

Responding to the bombings, Iraq’s Vice President Adel Abdul-Mahdi said: “We call upon all the political blocs to work in the best interest of the country, assume full responsibility in this sensitive stage, and speed up the formation of a new government that involves all political parties.”

The country has seen an increase in daily violent attacks as the political crisis surrounding the formation of a new government continues.

Iraqis went to the polls March 7, but no party has since been able to form a government.