At least 21 people killed, 70 injured in attacks on security forces and civilians in Baghdad, Kirkuk and other areas.

At least 21 people were killed and 70 others injured in a series of bomb attacks against security forces and civilians in central and northern Iraq, officials said.

Shia mosques in Baghdad were main targets in Tuesday’s attacks, along with policemen in Kirkuk, a city claimed by quarrelling ethnic groups in a disputed northern region.

Car bombs exploded near three mosques shortly after nightfall in the capital, killing 12.

Police and hospital officials said the first exploded near a Shia mosque following evening prayers in Hurriya neighbourhood, killing six worshippers and wounding 20 others.

Minutes later, another car bomb went off near Gaereat mosque, killing three people.

Later, police said a third car bomb exploded, killing three Shia worshippers and wounded 14 others in Shulla neighbourhood in northern Baghdad.

‘Horrific scenes’

Ali Habib, a taxi driver, said he was driving near the Shia mosque in Hurriya when he heard a loud explosion. He rushed to the blast site and helped take wounded to the hospital.

“The scene was horrific, with people screaming for help,” he said. “Such attacks bring back memories of the darkest days of sectarian strife that took place several years ago in Iraq.”

In the north, a police officer said three bombs in parked cars exploded simultaneously in the oil-rich city of Kirkuk, the largest city in the area claimed by several ethnic groups in a dispute with the central government in Baghdad.

The bombs hit two Kurdish residential areas in the centre of the city. One went off near a main Kurdish party headquarters.

Five people, including a Kurdish security guard, were killed and 58 others wounded.

A few minutes later, two bombs exploded in a market in the Sunni-dominated town of Hawija west of Kirkuk, killing two civilians and wounding five others, he said.

Also, five Iraqi army soldiers were wounded when fighters detonated bombs near their houses in the nearby town of Tuz Khortmato.

Kirkuk, 290km north of Baghdad, is home to a mix of Arabs, Kurds and Turkomen, who all have competing claims to the oil-rich area.

The attacks came a day after senior security officials from the federal government and Iraq’s autonomous Kurdistan region reached an agreement aimed at easing mounting tensions in the disputed areas of northern Iraq.

The country’s parliamentary speaker, Osama al-Nujaifi, has warned of civil war due to inaction.

The Kurds want to incorporate it into their self-ruled region in Iraq’s north, but Arabs and Turkomen are opposed.

Violence has ebbed since the peak of several years ago, but lethal attacks still occur frequently. No one claimed responsibility for Tuesday’s attacks.

Sahwa targeted

In the northeastern province of Diyala, fighters in speeding car shot at a check point manned by Sahwa, an anti-al-Qaeda group, killing one and wounding two others, another police official said.

The Sahwa are Sunni Arabs who joined forces with US military to fight al-Qaeda at the height of Iraq’s civil war. They have since been favorite targets for Sunni fighters who consider them as traitors.

Also in Diyala, a roadside bomb targeted a passing police patrol in the town of Khan Bani Saad, killing a civilian bystander and wounding two policemen, the officer said. The town is about 35km north of Baghdad.

In the northern city of Mosul, a parked car bomb went off near a house of a Sunni politician, wounding five bystanders. The politician, a woman, was unharmed, another police officer said.

Five other civilians were wounded when a roadside bomb exploded near an Iraqi military base in the town of Taji, 20km north of Baghdad, a police officer said.

Three health officials confirmed the causality figures. All officials spoke on condition of anonymity as they were not authorised to release information.