BAGHDAD, Aug. 15 (UPI) -- A series of bombings and shootings across Iraq Monday killed dozens of people and wounded scores more, police said.
The number of dead reported varied, with CNN saying at least 67 people and The Washington Post putting the total at 70. CNN reported at least 170 people were wounded.
Iraqi security forces were the targets of at least a dozen bombings but the worst were twin blasts targeting civilians on a busy street in Kut, a city in central Iraq, CNN reported. At least 34 people were killed when a car bomb, then a roadside bomb, detonated on a commercial street during morning rush-hour traffic, police told CNN.
The Interior Ministry decided to ban parking on both sides of the main and auxiliary streets throughout the country because of the violence, Aswat al-Iraq reported.
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In Diyala province, 14 people were killed in five car bombings and shootings, police told the Post.
In Twareej, a car bomb targeted a police station, killing at least eight people, two Interior Ministry officials told CNN.
Two suicide bombers targeted security forces in Tikrit, killing at least four police officers, the ministry officials said.
A suicide car bomber in Khan Bani Saad killed at least eight people, the ministry said.
At least three people died in four bomb explosions in Baghdad, ministry officials said.
At least 10 people died in attacks in Najaf, Kirkuk and Baqubabag, the ministry said.
In a statement, Usama al-Nujeify, the speaker of Iraq's Parliament, condemned the violence and placed responsibility for stifling it on the "officers in charge of the security bodies in the government and their commands," Aswat al-Iraq reported.
Nujeify also demanded an investigation to uncover the reasons and people behind the explosions.
