BAGHDAD - At least 72 Iraqis were killed and more than 160 wounded Wednesday in a string of bomb attacks in northern Iraq and Baghdad, security officials said.
The bloodshed came as a 1,000-strong US force backed by aircraft battled insurgents in the west of the country, in an operation which the military said had killed up to 100 rebels.
A car bomb killed 31, mostly civilians, and wounded 66 in a busy market area of Tikrit, the hometown of ousted Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein, some 180 kilometres (110 miles) north of Baghdad.
In Hawijah, northeast of Tikrit, a suicide bomber wearing a belt of explosives struck outside an army recruitment centre, killing 38 and wounding 84, the army said.
And in Baghdad, at least three people were killed and some 10 wounded in two separate explosions, one of them outside Dura police station in the south of the city, police said.
In other violence, two Iraqi soldiers were killed and five wounded in a drive-by shooting in western Baghdad, an interior ministry official said.
Security forces carried out a controlled explosion to destroy a bomb planted near the oil ministry in central Baghdad, the ministry`s spokesman said.
Insurgents have stepped up their attacks this month since Prime Minister Ibrahim Jaafari formed Iraq`s first democratically elected government in more than half a century.
Since the beginning of May more than 400 people have been killed in car bombings and other attacks.
05/11/2005 14:08 GMT