Four bombs ripped through Shiite neighbourhoods in Baghdad this evening, killing at least 40 people in the worst violence the capital has seen in months, Iraqi officials said.

An American civilian c

Violence in Baghdad and central Iraq on Monday killed 12 people, including eight soldiers struck by a car bomb driven by a suicide attacker in Saddam Hussein’s hometown of Tikrit, officials said.

A suicide attacker blew up a bomb-filled car at a Central Iraqi police headquarters on Thursday, killing two policemen and a female journalist in the third attack on local forces in as many days.

Two US soldiers have been killed in central Iraq in the first deadly attack of 2011 on American forces in the country, the military said on Monday.