Wave of blasts in Baghdad kills at least 57

The deadliest violence in Iraq in months killed at least 57 people in Baghdad on Thursday. The apparently coordinated wave of attacks were the first major sign of violence in a crisis that has threatened the country's fragile political truce just days after US forces completed their withdrawal. 

Reuters/Ahmed Malik

The attacks, which wounded 176, came in the Allawi, Bab al-Muatham and Karrada districts of central Baghdad, the Adhamiyah, Shuala and Shaab neighbourhoods in the north, Jadriyah in the east, Ghazaliyah in the west and Al-Amil and Dura in the south, officials said.

Thursday's violence was the worst since 15 August, when 74 people were killed and more than 200 people wounded in a series of attacks that struck 17 Iraqi cities.

The attacks come amid political infighting with Iraqi politicians at loggerheads over a warrant issued for the arrest of Vice President Tareq al-Hashemi who is accused of running death squads.

Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki is calling for the Kurdish authorities to hand over the Sunni Arab leader, who is holed up in their autonomous region. Hashemi denies the charges.

Maliki has also called for his Sunni deputy Saleh al-Mutlak, who belongs to the same Iraqiya bloc as Hashemi, to be sacked after he described the Shiite-led government as a "dictatorship".

Iraqiya, meanwhile, has boycotted parliament and the cabinet, and Maliki has hreatened to replace their ministers in the year-old unity government.

Washington has urged calm, with the crisis coming just days after US troops completed their withdrawal, leaving behind what President Barack Obama had described as a "sovereign, stable, and self-reliant Iraq."

Deadliest attacks in Iraq in 2011

• Jan 18: Tikrit, 50 killed, 150 wounded
• Jan 20: Nationwide, 50 killed
• Jan 27: Baghdad, 53 killed

• Feb 12: Baghdad, 33 killed

• March 29: Tikrit, 58 killed, 97 wounded

• May 5: Hilla, 24 killed
• May 19: Kirkuk, 29 killed

• June 3: Tikrit, 24 killed
• June 21: Diwaniyah, 26 killed
• June 23: Baghdad, 24 killed

• July 5: Taji, 35 killed

• August 15: 74 killed nationwide
• August 28: 28 killed nationwide

• Sept 12: Anbar province, 22 killed

• Oct 27: Baghdad, 32 killed, 71 wounded

• Dec 5: 29 killed
• Dec 22: Baghdad, at least 57