A wave of attacks across Iraq has killed at least 15 civilians, as government forces press on with their offensive to dislodge Islamic State militants from a major city west of Baghdad.

US Defence Secretary Robert Gates flew to Iraq today to meet Iraqi officials amid a wave of bombings which have killed 127 people and rattled the country’s government.

BOMBS killed at least 21 people across Iraq yesterday, security officials said, two days after a suicide truck bomb in the north of the country killed 73 people in the deadliest attack for more than a year.

The UN Security Council today condemned the terrorist attack on Iraq’s parliament “in the strongest terms” and called for national dialogue and reconciliation to restore peace and security in the violence-wracked country.