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Bush Wars Title: More Than A Dozen Bombing And Shooting Attacks Struck Iraq Monday, Killing At Least 74 People And Wounding 247 Baghdad (CNN) -- More than a dozen bombing and shooting attacks struck Iraq Monday, killing at least 74 people and wounding 247, officials with Iraq's Interior Ministry said. It was the worst wave of violence to strike the country in months, taking place on the halfway mark of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan. "Today's attacks are eerily similar to the stream of large scale, complex attacks that occurred here last year during Ramadan on Aug. 25," said Angela Funaro, spokeswoman for United States Forces-Iraq. Officials believe the attacks last year were perpetrated by al Qaeda in Iraq "to shake the public's confidence in the capabilities of the ISF (Iraqi Security Forces) to defend this country," but it is too early to speculate about Monday's attacks, Funaro said in an e-mail. A jihadist website Monday had a post praising the attacks against "Shiites, Christians, and the apostate Awakening Councils." The post did not include a claim of responsibility. Awakening Councils are made up of former Sunni militants now in the pay of the Iraqi government, which have been credited with helping reduce violence. The attacks come weeks after Iraq's political leaders agreed to request U.S. troops stay beyond a January 1, 2012, deadline to withdraw. While the United States pulled its combat troops last year, between 46,000 and 50,000 troops have remained to provide support and training. The United States is widely expected to agree to some kind of limited extension of training personnel and equipment. Last week, Muqtada al-Sadr, the influential Iraqi Shiite cleric staunchly opposed to U.S. troop presence, warned against the prospects of a "challenge" with any U.S. forces that stay in Iraq. His Mehdi army militia was a major factor in the sectarian violence that erupted during the height of the war. Monday's violence ended a period of calm that began about the same time as Ramadan. Ministry of Interior officials called on security forces to ban people from parking their vehicles on the streets of cities targeted in the attacks, saying they feared more violence. In Tikrit, north of Baghdad, officials imposed a curfew on vehicles until further notice after a fatal suicide attack, officials with the Interior Ministry said. Funaro said Iraq forces requested U.S. assistance only in Tikrit, and added that U.S. forces "are prepared to assist in any capacity" in line with the security agreement in place. Two suicide bombers targeted security forces in Tikrit -- Saddam Hussein's hometown -- killing at least four policemen and wounding 11, the two officials said. In all, 13 bombings Monday targeted mostly Iraqi security forces, though the worst attack was a double bombing that targeted civilians on a busy street in central Iraq, authorities said. At least 37 people were killed when a car bomb followed by a roadside bomb exploded on a busy commercial street in Kut during morning rush hour, according to health officials and police, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to release the information to the media. Sixty-five people were wounded in the attack, Dr. Dhiya al-Deen Jalil, the head of the health directorate in Kut, told CNN. He also confirmed the 34 fatalities. In Twareej, near of the southern holy city of Karbala, a car bomb exploded near a police station, killing at least eight people and wounding 20, two officials at the Interior Ministry told CNN. The officials also spoke on condition of anonymity for the same reason as the police. A suicide car bomber targeted an Iraqi army base in Khan Bani Saad, north of Baghdad, killing at least eight people and wounding 21, the ministry officials said. A string of explosions rocked Baghdad, killing at least three people and wounding 34, the officials said. Among the attacks were two car bombings that targeted an Iraqi army patrol and an Education Ministry convoy, the officials said. A parked car bomb in Najaf killed 11 people and wounded 50. Another parked car bomb in Kirkuk killed one person and wounded eight. A motorcycle rigged with explosives detained at an Iraqi police patrol in central Kirkuk wounded seven people. In Baquba, a suicide car bomb, another car bomb, and a shooting attack killed 13 people. In the Sunni-dominated Anbar province, a man building a bomb in his house in Falluja inadvertently detonated it, the officials said. The explosion killed the man's 5-year-old son and wounded his wife and three other children, they said. The man was later arrested at a Falluja hospital. Four roadside bombs exploded in Mosul, wounding five people. While violence in Iraq has fallen off in recent years, there has been an increase in attacks targeting civilians and U.S. and Iraqi security forces in recent months. Stuart Bowen, the U.S. official in charge of overseeing reconstruction in Iraq, says the country is more dangerous now than it was a year ago, according to an agency report to Congress in July.
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