At least 8 dead in wave of Iraq attacks

At least eight people were killed and more than 50 wounded in a spate of attacks in Baghdad as well as northern and western Iraq early on Thursday, security and medical officials said. They reported at least a dozen bomb blasts and one shooting in five different cities. The violence raised the overall death toll from nationwide violence this month to 153, as analysts warned that insurgent groups could seek to carry out deadly attacks ahead of the end of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan. The deadliest attack took place in the town of Al-Garma, near the former insurgent bastion of Fallujah west of Baghdad, where four policemen were killed and three others wounded in a shooting at a checkpoint, according to police Major Enes Mahmud and doctor Omar Dalli at Fallujah hospital. As emergency responders and civilians rushed to the scene to tend to the victims, a roadside bomb exploded, wounding three others. In the disputed, ethnically-mixed northern city of Kirkuk, four car bombs exploded within 45 minutes, killing one person and wounding 20 others, according to a police official and Dr Karim Wali at the city's main hospital. Among those wounded were an unspecified number of security forces members, the officials said. Bomb blasts in the town of Dibis and Tuz Khurmatu, both north of Baghdad, and in the capital itself killed another three people and wounded 24 others, officials said.