Iraq: Car Bombings Hit Ramadan Celebrations

The US has condemned the latest bombings in Baghdad which killed dozens of people, saying attackers who targeted civilians during celebrations marking the end of Ramadan were "enemies of Islam".

Car bombs ripped through markets, shopping streets and parks late on Saturday as Iraqis were out celebrating Eid, the end of the Muslim fasting month, killing at least 57 and wounding more than 150.

One of the bombings was near an outdoor market in the southeastern suburbs of the city shortly before sunset, killing seven people and wounding 20.

In the deadliest attack on Saturday, a suicide bomber detonated a device in a car on a busy street in the town of Tuz Khurmato, 105 miles north of the capital, killing at least eight people and wounding dozens, medical and police sources said.

Tuz Khurmato is located in a particularly violent region over which both the central government and autonomous Iraqi Kurdistan claim jurisdiction.

Police believe the bomber was trying to reach the local headquarters of a Kurdish political party, but was unable to reach the building because of increased security in the area, a police source said.

The US State Department described the attacks as cowardly. "The terrorists who committed these acts are enemies of Islam and a shared enemy of the United States, Iraq, and the international community," it said.

In the holy Shi'ite city of Karbala, 50 miles south of Baghdad, police said four people were killed in a car bomb attack near a cafe at night.

A car bomb also exploded in a busy street in Nasiriyah city in southern Iraq, killing four people and wounding 41 others.

In the oil-rich city of Kirkuk, a car bomb hit near a Shi'ite mosque, killing one person and wounding 20 others, police said.

Many of the attacks occurred within an hour of each other, suggesting a level of co-ordination in the assaults.

No group immediately claimed responsibility for the attacks, though security forces and civilians are frequently targeted by al Qaeda's Iraq branch.

The death toll in Saturday's attacks is the highest single-day total since July 20, when brazen assaults on two prisons near Baghdad plus other attacks left 71 dead.

There has been a surge in violence in Iraq since the start of the year.

More than 1,000 people were killed in July, the highest monthly death toll since 2008 amid worries of a return to the all-out sectarian war that blighted Iraq years ago.

Sunni Islamist militants have been regaining momentum in their insurgency against the Shi'ite-led government.

And they have been emboldened by the civil war in neighbouring Syria, which has stoked sectarian tensions across the Middle East.