31 killed in blasts, attacks across Iraq

 At least 31 people were killed and more than 250 others were wounded in a new wave of bombings and shootings in northern and central Iraq on Wednesday, meantime the country plunged with anti-government protests and political row,according to Xinhua.

The first attack took place in Kirkuk, some 250 km north of the Iraqi capital of Baghdad, when a suicide bomber drove his explosive-laden truck into the entrance of compound housing offices affiliated to the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP), a commercial area in central the city.

The huge explosion destroyed parts of the compound buildings and set fire into several nearby vehicles, while a rescue team and security members were working at the site to remove debris in search for more victims.

Afterwards, another blast took place when a car bomb, which was parked on the side of a road in al-Tarbiyah district in central Kirkuk, went off near the convoy of a KDP official who was coming to visit the scene of the first blast.

“A total of 16 people were killed and 190 others wounded by the two blasts,” Governor of Kirkuk Najm al-Din Omer told reporters citing the provincial health reports.

Another attack targeted the offices of the Kurdish parties took place in the morning when a car bomb exploded near the office of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK), a Kurdish party headed by Iraqi President Jalal Talabani, in the city of Tuz-Khurmato, some 200 km north of Baghdad.

As many as five people were killed and 40 others were wounded, many were Kurdish security members, during the blast which also caused severe damages to the office and nearby buildings.

Meanwhile, three policemen were killed in Baghdad in the early morning hours, when gunmen attacked their police vehicle in al- Shaab district in northeastern the capital.

Later in the day, a roadside bomb struck a police vehicle in the same district, wounding a police officer and four policemen.

R.S