LONDON - Britain on Wednesday condemned a series of "horrendous" bomb attacks which killed at least 64 people in Iraq, causing carnage in Baghdad and the northern towns of Tikrit and Hawijah.
"Our thoughts go out to all the families and friends of those killed and injured in today's horrendous attacks on innocent Iraqis trying to go about their daily lives," junior Foreign Office minister Kim Howells said in a statement.
"These, and other recent tragic incidents, are the desperate acts of those seeking to destabilise the successful democratic political process reflected in the recently elected transitional government -- they will not win."
Howells was appointed last week as foreign minister with responsibility for the Middle East in a government reshuffle by Prime Minister Tony Blair following a general election win for his Labour Party.
A first car bomb struck a busy market area in Saddam Hussein's hometown of Tikrit, killing 31, mostly civilians, and wounding 66, police said.
In another attack, a suicide bomber blew himself up outside an army recruitment centre in the town of Hawijah, northeast of Tikrit, killing 30 people, while three car bombs were detonated in Baghdad.
Britain backed the US-led conflict of March 2003 to unseat Iraqi president Saddam Hussein. Around 8,000 British soldiers are currently deployed in the country, mainly in the more peaceful south around the city of Basra.
05/11/2005 12:13 GMT