Attacks across Iraqkill 22 as US leaves

More than a dozen attacks on Iraqi security forces from one end of the country to the other killed 22 people and left scores wounded.

The scale of the violence underscored insurgent efforts to show their strength as the American military leaves.

The deadliest attack was in north Baghdad where a suicide bomber detonated a car bomb behind a police station, killing 15 people, including six policemen and nine civilians. Another 58 were wounded in the attack in Baghdad’s Qahira district.

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Also in Baghdad, a bomb exploded near a bank in the central district of Karradah, wounding six people waiting for pensions. Two civilians were killed and eight were wounded when a car packed with explosives blew up in Adan square in the northern part of the capital.

A car bomb exploded near the local council building of Muqdadiyah killing three civilians and injuring 18.

In Karbala, 50 miles south of Baghdad, 28 people were wounded when a car bomb exploded near a police station. Civilians, policemen and several detainees held at the station were among the injured.

In Basra, in southern Iraq, two people were wounded in a car bomb explosion.

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While violence has subsided significantly since the height of the sectarian bloodshed in 2006 and 2007, militants continue to target members of Iraq’s new security forces, undermining their ability to defend the country as the US ends combat operations in the country.

In addition to daily attacks on Iraq’s police and army, the number of criminal attacks has also grown in the past weeks.

Recent bank robberies and attacks on gold jewellers and money changers across Iraq have raised suspicions that insurgents linked to al-Qaida are building up a war chest for future attacks.

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