Scores dead in multiple Iraq attacks

Attacks on police stations and US occupation troops in five cities around Iraq have claimed at least 70 lives and wounded over 250. 

Iraq's police force took dozens of casualties within hours

Iraqi police have suffered the highest number of fatalities, but US soldiers have also been killed and an occupation force Cobra helicopter has been brought down near Falluja.

Seven car bombs in the northern city of Mosul have killed dozens of policemen and wounded as many as 60 more.

One of the blasts also killed a US soldier and injured three others.

Lieutenant Muhammad Abd al-Karim said the attacks began after 9am local time in the al-Wakhas and Fathi districts of the city.

Bodies are still being brought into local hospitals, but the health ministry in Mosul estimates that about 44 people have died as a result of the blasts, with an additional 216 people injured.

Ramadi attacks

Just hours earlier, rocket-propelled grenades slammed into three different stations around the western city of Ramadi during a coordinated attack, according to police officer Lieutenant Ahmad Sami.

“We were inside the al-Qatana station … [it] was attacked from all around.” Sami confirmed that the Faruq station and another government building had also been destroyed.

Dr Hamad al-Dulaimi of Ramadi hospital said he knew nine police officers had died so far and that at least 27 had been seriously wounded.

Meanwhile, a hospital spokesperson in the northeastern city of Baquba said at least 13 people were killed and another 15 injured during a morning raid there.

Baquba battle

Two US soldiers were among the dead and seven more were wounded in an armed ambush at around 05:30 local time (01:30 GMT).

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The US military has launched air
strikes on Baquba

US First Infantry Division spokesman Major Neal O’Brien confirmed the fatalities and said air strikes would be launched on the city within hours.

But resistance fighters also began an attack on US troops and Iraqi police in a sustained street battle just after dawn.

The western section of the city, known as the al-Mufraq district, appeared to be out of US-led occupation force control, though police chief General Walid Khalid expects to secure the whole quarter within hours.

Four more police officials were also killed in southwest Baghdad at 12:00 pm local time after a car exploded outside a station.

A spokesman said three more were seriously injured. The body of the car’s driver was also recovered – wearing the remains of a police uniform. 

Source: Al Jazeera, News Agencies