93 die in Iraq's deadliest day this year

23 Jul 2012, 8:54 pm   -   Source: AAP
Most of the attacks bear the hallmarks of Sunni Muslim insurgents linked to al-Qaeda, targeting Shi'ites and their holy sites as well as security forces working for the Shi'ite-led government. (File: AAP)

Most of the attacks bear the hallmarks of Sunni Muslim insurgents linked to al-Qaeda, targeting Shi'ites and their holy sites as well as security forces working for the Shi'ite-led government. (File: AAP)

Iraq has suffered its deadliest day this year as al-Qaeda seeks to re-assert its might in a security vacuum left by the departing Americans.

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An onslaught of bombings and shootings have killed 93 people across Iraq in the country's deadliest day this year.

The attacks on Monday morning came days after the leader of al-Qaeda in Iraq declared a new offensive and warned in a statement that the militant group was reorganising in areas from which it retreated before US troops left the country last December.

Al-Qaeda has been seeking to re-assert its might in the security vacuum left by the departing Americans, seizing on Baghdad's fragmented government and the surge of Sunni rebels in neighbouring Syria to sow instability across Iraq.

US and Iraqi officials insist that the terror network's Iraqi wing, known as the Islamic State of Iraq, is nowhere as strong as it was when the nation threatened to fall into civil war between 2006 and 2008, and the Iraqi government is better established.

Monday's violence in 13 Iraqi cities and towns appeared co-ordinated: The blasts all took place within a few hours of each other. They struck mostly at security forces and government offices - two of al-Qaeda's favourite targets in Iraq.

"It was a thunderous explosion," said Mohammed Munim, 35, who was working at an Interior Ministry office that issues government ID cards to residents in Baghdad's Shi'ite Sadr City neighbourhood when a car exploded outside. Sixteen people were killed.

"The only thing I remember was the smoke and fire, which was everywhere, said Munim from his bed in the emergency room at Sadr City hospital. He was hit by shrapnel in his neck and back.

The worst attack happened in the town of Taji, about 20 kilometres north of the capital. Police said bombs planted around five houses in the Sunni town exploded an hour after dawn. A suicide bomber detonated his explosives belt in the crowd of police who rushed to help. In all, 41 people were killed, police said.

And in an attack on Iraq's military, three carloads of gunmen pulled up at an army base near the northeast town of Udaim and started firing at forces. Thirteen soldiers were killed.

The overall toll made Monday the deadliest day in Iraq since US troops left in mid-December. Before Monday, the deadliest day was January 5, when a wave of bombings targeting Shi'ites killed 78 people in Baghdad and outside the southern city of Nasiriyah.

Previous al-Qaeda offensives have failed to push the country into civil war, largely because Shi'ite militias in recent years have refused to join in with the kind of tit-for-tat killings that marked Iraq's descent six years ago.

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