50 killed in Iraq blasts (Second Lead)

BAGHDAD - Bomb blasts primarily targeting police stations in several Iraqi cities killed at least 50 people, including 20 policemen and two children, and injured dozens Wednesday.

At least 20 policemen were killed and 90 injured in the city of Kut, some 170 km northeast of Baghdad, when a suicide bomber drove an explosives-laden car into a police station.

A car bomb exploded near a police station in the capital Baghdad, killing at least 11 and injuring more than 30 people. Witnesses said four policemen were among the dead.

Seven people were killed and 25 injured in another car bombing at a market in Karbala, an official said. The blast occurred near a police station in the city, which lies some 110 km south of Baghdad.

In Fallujah, west of the capital, at least three people were killed in several bomb attacks.

A roadside bomb targeting a police patrol killed two children and injured several people outside the city and a second such attack later in the morning killed a soldier and injured 10 people.

Police in the area said an armed militant was killed while planting a bomb.

In Ramadi, a city also to the west of the capital, a car bomb killed three people, two of them policemen. Media reports said a suicide bomber had struck.

Police also came under attack in Tikrit in the northwest, where a police station was blown up in a car bombing. Several officers were injured in the attack.

Outside of the city, a police patrol came under attack by insurgents using guns and explosives. One insurgent was killed and several policemen injured in the attack.

In the northern city of Kirkuk, one person was killed and nine injured by a car bomb, police said.

A car bomb in Baquba, the capital of Diyala province, located some 57 km northeast of Baghdad, killed three and injured 18 people. A second explosion at the same spot injured another 8 people.

In Hilla, south of Baghdad, a Shiite shrine was attacked by a bomb, leaving one person injured.

US troops in Iraq have now fallen below 50,000, its lowest level since the 2003 invasion. Combat operations are officially set to conclude at the end of this month with all US combat soldiers having left the country last week.