57 killed in attacks on Iraqi police stations (Third Lead)

BAGHDAD - Bomb blasts primarily targeting police stations in Iraq killed at least 57 people, including 28 security officials and two children, and injured nearly 200 people Wednesday.

A member of parliament with the Iraqiya List, a party headed by former premier Iyad al-Allawi, called for an emergency session of parliament in response to the blasts.

“The explosions today represent a major crisis in regards to security,” Falah Hassan Zaidan al-Haybi told DPA.

He charged that the Iraqi government forces were not ready to take over security of the country, as US combat operations come to an end next week.

Iraq remains in a political deadlock since the March 7 elections failed to produce an outright winner and coalition talks are stalled. Al-Haybi said insurgents were taking advantage of the situation.

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. Three people were killed and 12 injured when a second car bomb exploded later in the Aden district, in the north of the capital.

Qais Shadha al-Jibouri, a member of the Iraqiya List, escaped an assassination attempt in eastern Baghdad but a guard was hurt in the attack, the party reported.

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. Witnesses in the area said a suicide bomber had also struck later, though further details were unknown.

In Ramadi, a city also to the west of the capital, a car bomb killed three people, two of them policemen.

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 north-east of Baghdad, killed three and injured 18. A second explosion at the same spot injured another eight people.

Gunmen in Mosul, an ethnically diverse city 400 km north of Baghdad, killed an officer at a checkpoint and injured another police official. A bomb that went off near an army base injured two soldiers.

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, their 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.