Bomb blasts ripped through at least five Iraqi cities Monday, August 15 morning, killing 42 people – most of them in the southern city of Kut – in a wave of violence that shattered what had been a relatively peaceful holy month of Ramadan.
The blasts were coordinated to go off in the morning and included a combination of parked car bombs, roadside bombs and a suicide bomber driving a vehicle that rammed into a police station.
The worst violence came in the southern city of Kut, 100 miles (160 kilometers) southeast of Baghdad, where twin explosions went off as construction workers were gathered in a market selling generators and other appliances.
At roughly the same time, a suicide car bomber plowed his vehicle into a checkpoint outside a police building just outside the holy city of Najaf.
In the northern city of Tikrit, two men wearing explosives belts drove into a heavily guarded government compound wearing military uniforms which helped them avoid notice by the guards. When the men approached the building, the guards ordered them to stop and then opened fire. One bomber was immediately killed but the other managed to get inside the building before blowing himself up and killed three people. Ten people were also injured in the attack.
In the northern city of Kirkuk, a car bomb exploded next to a police patrol Monday morning, injuring four police officers.
In Baghdad, a parked car bomb exploded near a convoy carrying officials from the Ministry of Higher Education. Eight people were wounded, the Associated Press reported.
