Dozens dead in Baghdad blasts

A wave of bombings in Baghdad killed at least 57 people and injured 200 more today.

At least 12 explosions went off in the worst violence to hit the country since a political crisis between Iraq’s Sunni and Shiite factions erupted at the weekend.

Iraqi officials said the blasts went off in nine neighbourhoods around the city.

The worst attack was in the al-Amal neighbourhood, where a blast appeared to target rescuers and officials who came to the scene after a previous explosion.

Others were killed in a western Baghdad neighbourhood when two roadside bombs exploded. Three others died in three separate explosions.

Ziad Tariq, a spokesman for the Iraqi health ministry, said at least 49 people died and 167 others were wounded in the wave of co-ordinated attacks.

The political spat, which pits Iraq’s Shiite prime minister against the highest-ranking Sunni political leader, has raised fears that Iraq’s sectarian wounds will be reopened.

The political row between prime minister Nouri Maliki and the Sunni vice president Tariq al-Hashemi has plunged Iraq into the worst political crisis in years and raised fears of renewed sectarian violence.

Mr Maliki’s government has accused Mr al-Hashemi of running a hit squad that targeted government officials. He is also pushing for a vote of no-confidence against another Sunni politician, the deputy prime minister Saleh al-Mutlaq.

Many Sunnis fear that this is part of a wider campaign to go after Sunni political figures in general and shore up Shiite control across the country at a critical time when all American troops have left the country.