Iraq attacks including Baghdad blasts kill 31

A series of attacks in Baghdad and north Iraq killed 31 people today amid a surge in violence that authorities have failed to stem despite wide-ranging operations targeting militants.
Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki has vowed to press on with his anti-insurgency campaign, which has reportedly led to the arrest of hundreds of alleged militants and the killing of dozens.
But analysts and diplomats say authorities have failed to tackle the root causes of Iraq's worst violence since 2008: anger in the Sunni Arab community over perceived ill treatment by the Shiite-led authorities and security forces.
Today's violence struck the Baghdad area and in predominantly Sunni Arab towns and cities to the north, but the deadliest of the attacks hit the capital.

A series of bombings -- two car bombs and a roadside bomb -- went off between 4:00 pm (1830 IST) and 5:30 pm (2000 IST) in Baghdad and its outskirts, killing nine people and wounding 22 others, officials said.
The blasts struck a variety of neighbourhoods across the city, and were the latest in a burgeoning trend of militant attacks in the afternoon and evening in Baghdad.

In previous years, deadly attacks have typically struck during the morning rush-hour when much of the capital is in gridlock.
Attacks today also hit Salaheddin, Nineveh and Diyala provinces to the north of Baghdad, security and medical officials said.

The deadliest of those struck in Baquba, where four bombings in the Diyala provincial capital, including two targeting a Shiite wedding and the home of a newly-returned displaced family, killed nine people and wounded 47 others.
Elsewhere, a car bomb near the town of Balad killed five people and wounded 21 others, among them a senior judge who was the apparent target of the blast.
In restive Nineveh province, gunmen opened fire on a van ferrying soldiers from Baghdad to their unit in the provincial capital Mosul, killing five of them.
Also in Nineveh, three separate attacks by gunmen left a soldier and two civilians dead, including a member of the Shabak minority.