Related Event: Iraq in Transition

Three suicide car bombings occurred within an hour followed by a drive-by shooting in a busy Baghdad market.

In the town of Tuz Khormato, near Kirkuk, a suicide car bomber targeted the bodyguards of Iraq's Kurdish deputy prime minister as they ate at a restaurant. The blast killed 12 people.

Earlier in Kirkuk, a suicide car bomber trying to attack a convoy of civilian contract workers killed a young boy and three other Iraqi bystanders, also wounding 11 people.

Another suicide bomber killed four people and wounded four in Baqouba, about 35 miles northeast of Baghdad. Hours later, two parked motorcycles rigged with bombs blew up near a coffee shop there, killing five Iraqis and wounding 13.

In the capital, nine died after men in three speeding cars sprayed gunfire into a crowded market in the northern neighborhood of Hurriyah. Two other attacks in the Baghdad area killed four people and injured three.

Iraqi and U.S. forces have stepped up operations to answer the insurgent onslaught that has killed at least 814 people since Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari announced his Cabinet five weeks ago. But militants have continued to stage deadly attacks across northern Iraq.

Iraq's government launched a new crackdown campaign in Baghdad on Sunday. Police patrols and checkpoints have been deployed on the streets of Baghdad. It's the biggest Iraqi offensive since Saddam Hussein's fall two years ago.

According to Interior Minister Bayan Jabr, the Baghdad operation had netted at least 700 suspected insurgents and killed 28 rebels in firefights. In addition, 118 criminal suspects had been arrested.

(Photo Source: AP)