Bombings against Kurds kill 18 as Iraq violence rages

A destroyed vehicle is seen at the site of a car bomb attack in Jalawla yesterday.  A suicide bomber blew himself up at the headquarters of a Kurdish political party in Iraq's ethnically mixed province of Diyalay, killing at least 18 people.

AFP/Baghdad

A car bomb attack and a suicide blast on Sunday killed 18 people at a Kurdish political party's office north of Baghdad and 11 others died in other violence in Iraq.

Militants have launched major operations in multiple provinces in recent days, killing scores of people and highlighting both their long reach and the weakness of Iraqi security forces.

Iraq is suffering its worst violence in years, and with none of the myriad problems that contribute to the heightened unrest headed for quick resolutions, the bloodshed is likely to continue unabated.

In Sunday's deadliest attack, a car bomb exploded near an office of President Jalal Talabani's Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) party and a Kurdish security forces building in the town of Jalawla, north of Baghdad.

As emergency workers came to the scene, a suicide bomber detonated explosives, with the two blasts killing 18 people and wounding 67.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility.

In the northern city of Mosul, where security forces have battled militants in days of heavy clashes, shelling hit three western areas, killing eight people and wounding three.

Three roadside bombs also killed a civilian and wounded three soldiers northwest of the city of Kirkuk.

And in Baghdad, gunmen opened fire on a police checkpoint in the Bayaa area, killing two police and wounding at least one more.

The violence followed a series of major operations by jihadists in recent days that have killed dozens of people.

On Saturday, militants took hundreds of hostages at Anbar University in Ramadi, west of Baghdad, the last of whom were only freed in an assault by security forces that sparked hours of fighting.

And a series of blasts in Baghdad on Saturday night killed at least 25 more people.