Baghdad - At least 35 were killed and 68 injured Tuesday in a series of attacks across Iraq including two suicide bombings targeting a police chief and an anti-al-Qaeda tribal figure in the town of Baiji. At least 18 people have been killed and 29 injured in twin suicide bombings in the town of Baiji, north of Baghdad, targeting the homes of the town's police chief and a tribal leader, police said.
The first blast targeted the home of the police chief, General Saad al-Nufus, in the early morning. At least four people were killed and eight injured in the attack, including Nufus and some of his relatives, police said.
Minutes later, the second blast targeted a mosque near the house of a leader of the Salahaddin province's Awakening Council, which is an alliance of tribes involved in a crackdown on al-Qaeda in the province.
Early reports said at least 10 people have been killed and scores injured. The tribal leader was unhurt.
The northern provinces have seen an escalation of violence in recent days. Another tribal leader from the Salahaddin council and three of his bodyguards were killed last week in Samarra, another town in the predominantly Sunni province.
Tribal coalitions have been formed in many Iraqi provinces to fight insurgents loyal to al-Qaeda and the former Baath Party.
Later Tuesday, a series of attacks in Baghdad left 16 dead and 34 injured.
In central Baghdad's Khalani square, seven people were killed and 16 injured by a minibus bomb.
The area with many shops and a large Shiite mosque was full of people when the bomb went off.
Security forces cordoned off the square. Casualties, some of them women and children, were taken to local hospitals.
Police revised down earlier casualty figures that put the death toll at 40 and those injured at 60.
A car bomb in north-east Baghdad's district of Shaab killed four people and injured seven, the Iraqi news agency Voices of Iraq VOI reported.
Another car bomb in east Baghdad's banks district killed three people and injured seven, VOI reported.
In a separate attack, a bomb exploded hitting a minibus in Baghdad's southern district of Jisr Diyala, killing a woman and a man and injuring at least four. Another bomb went off near a bank in the same district, causing no casualties.
In a separate incident, gunmen killed the deputy police chief of the northern province of Nineveh Tuesday morning.
Police said Gen Abdel Ali Zunun Mubarak has been killed by gunmen outside his home in northern Mosul, 410 kilometres north of Baghdad. His driver was wounded in the attack.
In Kirkuk, the intelligence chief at the ministry of interior was critically injured in a bomb blast Tuesday, police said.
A bomb went off outside the home of Gen Abdel Amir Mahmud, in a Kirkuk suburb, 250 kilometres north of Baghdad, injuring him and two of his body guards and a man who was walking by.
Meanwhile, a US marine was killed on Monday during an operation in the western province of Anbar, the US military said.
