BAGHDAD - A string of deadly explosions and other attacks shook Iraq on Thursday, with bombings in Baghdad and the northern city of Kirkuk resulting in the most fatalities.
Overall, nearly three dozen people were killed and more than 100 wounded, according to security officials.
By the standards of Iraq - where attacks occur daily, although at a much diminished rate compared with the height of the war - the violence Thursday was not extraordinary. But it was a reminder that an organized insurgency remained active.
A series of explosions in the village of Al-Malhaa, on the outskirts of Kirkuk, left nine people dead and 24 wounded, according to an official in Kirkuk, a city divided among three ethnic groups often at odds with one another: Arabs, Kurds, and Turkmen.
In Baghdad, nearly 15 people were killed in a handful of explosions, including one aimed at the convoy of the minister of health, Majeed Hamad Amin. He was unharmed, but two bystanders were killed, an official said.
Some bombs were directed at Shi’ite Muslims, who make up the majority of Iraq’s population and are frequently the victims of what is left of the country’s Sunni insurgency and its main group, Al Qaeda in Iraq. A hotel in Kadhimiya, a Baghdad neighborhood that is home to a Shi’ite shrine, was struck by a car bomb. The attack killed two people.
In Samarra, two car bombs hit a checkpoint guarded by members of a local Awakening group, part of the movement that is made up of former insurgents who were paid to switch sides under a program that was begun by the US military. In that attack, three people were killed.
Several attacks also occurred in Diyala Province, which was the site of some of the worst carnage during Iraq’s sectarian war in 2006 and 2007.
Nearly four months have passed since the withdrawal of the US military, and despite the attacks Thursday, security has not deteriorated, as many analysts contended it would. By some Iraqi government measures, March was one of the least violent months since 2003, when the US-led war began.
But according to statistics cited by the United Nations, violence has remained steady and similar to the levels over the past three years. In March, according to those statistics, 294 people were killed in attacks, up from February and comparable to many months last year.
While the security situation has been somewhat stable, the political situation has deteriorated in recent months. On Thursday, a dispute that pits the Shi’ite-led government against the Kurdish minority appeared to be escalating. Last year Kurdish authorities in the north entered their own exploration deal with Exxon Mobil, a pact that the Baghdad government has said is illegal. The government has threatened to withhold money from Kurdistan, and the Oil Ministry on Thursday dropped Exxon from a list of bidders for a new round of exploration contracts.