Twelve people have been killed in a series of bombings in the Iraqi capital Baghdad.

Fourteen people were killed and more than 75 injured in a wave of car bombings across Baghdad today as violence surges in Iraq amid an escalating political crisis a month after the US military withdrawal.

A SERIES of bombings hit Baghdad, killing at least 69 people in the first big assault on Iraq’s capital since a sectarian crisis erupted within its government days after the US troop withdrawal.

Seventeen people were killed in bomb attacks across Iraq’s capital, Baghdad, today, including Iranian pilgrims near a revered shrine and shoppers at a Shiite neighbourhood market, authorities said.

Two car bombs exploded in Baghdad today as commuters were starting their working week, killing at least 23 people and wounding dozens of others, Iraqi officials said.

Three people were killed today when a booby-trapped body exploded near a grocery store in Iraq, police said.

A co-ordinated al Qaida bombing attack on apartment buildings across Baghdad killed at least 39 people today in the latest sign Iraq’s fragile security could dissolve in the chaos of its unresolved election.

Massive explosions at apartments across Baghdad killed at least 34 people and wounded more than 100 today.

A suicide bomber killed at least 15 people and wounded eight at an Iraqi funeral today.

Iraq’s prime minister pledged to expand his crackdown on Shiite militias to Baghdad, despite a mixed performance so far against militants in the southern city of Basra.

A suicide car bomber struck an Iraqi military base in northern Iraq today in the deadliest of a series of attacks that killed at least 42 people nationwide.

American troops battled with Shiite gunmen today in Baghdad, killing at least eight in pre-dawn fighting, the US military said.

US forces seized hundreds of mortar rounds and rockets in a Sunni neighbourhood of Baghdad today, and detained two suspected terrorists.

Bombs in Baghdad and the northern oil centre of Kirkuk today killed more than 60 people, police said.

Masked Shiite gunmen went on a rampage in western Baghdad today, pulling Sunni Arabs from cars and off the street and killing at least 41 people, police said.

THE political impasse over Iraq’s new government tightened yesterday as Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari’s party indicated it was standing firm for him to keep the post despite opposition from Sunni Arabs and Kurds.

A top Shiite politicians today said names of selections for top posts in the new Iraqi government must be agreed upon before parliament can convene next week, casting doubt on whether the legislature will meet as announced.

At least 24 bodies – many of them strangled – were found dumped in parts of Baghdad, Iraqi police said today.

A car bomb blast targeting a US military patrol killed six Iraqi civilians and wounded 11 others today.

Iraq’s Interior Ministry has launched an investigation into claims that a police death squad has been operating in Iraq, a top official said today.

Explosions ripped through Baghdad every few minutes today, beginning with a huge suicide car bombing that shattered the morning calm in a heavily Shiite northern Baghdad district, targeting labourers gathered to find work for the day.

NEARLY 40 people have died in a rash of car bombings in Iraq’s capital in the space of 12 hours, including four co-ordinated blasts early yesterday in central Baghdad that killed 15 and wounded 28 more, police said.

Nearly 40 people have died in a rash of car bombings in Iraq’s capital in the space of 12 hours, including four co-ordinated blasts early today in central Baghdad that killed 15 and wounded 28 more, police said.

Two car bombs killed at least 15 and wounded 28 more, including a boy who appeared to have lost a leg, in a co-ordinated attack on a central Baghdad shopping district early today.

At least 32 people were killed yesterday across Iraq, including a prominent Sunni law professor assassinated by gunmen.

A SERIES of car bombs exploded after dusk yesterday in Baghdad, killing at least 23 people and wounding about 56, police said. Separate attacks earlier in the day killed seven others.

Two US soldiers were killed when their helicopter was shot down and crashed in central Iraq, the military said today, as the government prepared to ring Baghdad with tens of thousands of security forces to curb the rampant insurgency.

IRAQIS said more than 50 people were killed yesterday in an air raid on a Baghdad market after the United States unleashed some of the heaviest air strikes of the war on the capital.