Bombs kill 57 as Iraq mired in political crisis

BAGHDAD, Dec 22 (AFP): A wave of attacks in Baghdad Thursday killed 57 people as Iraq faced a political crisis, with its vice president accused of running death squads and the premier warning he could break off power-sharing. The apparently coordinated blasts and the murder of a family-of-five in restive Diyala province were the first major sign of violence in a row that has threatened Iraq's fragile political truce and heightened sectarian tensions just days after US forces completed their withdrawal. The Baghdad attacks, the deadliest in more than four months, largely coincided with the morning rush hour, and security forces cordoned off bomb sites, the news agency correspondents and officials said. Iraqi helicopters could be heard hovering overhead at many of the blast sites and emergency response vehicles rushed to the scene of attacks, while tightened security at checkpoints worsened Baghdad's already choking traffic. The attacks 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, the officials said. Health ministry spokesman Ziad Tariq put the toll at 57 dead and 176 wounded in 10 attacks. An interior ministry official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said 63 people were killed and 185 wounded. "They didn't target any vital institutions or security positions," Baghdad security spokesman Major General Qassim Atta told the news agency. "They targeted children's schools, day workers, the anti-corruption agency." Atta, who said there had been a dozen attacks aross the city, said it was "too early to say" who was behind the violence. A family of five-parents, their two daughters and a son-were gunned down by insurgents in a suburb of the Diyala provincial capital Baquba, north of the capital, early Thursday, medical and security officials said.