Iraq attacks kill 66 as gunmen make gains in Anbar

BAGHDAD: A wave of attacks in Iraq, including car bombs in Baghdad, killed 66 people on Wednesday as militants took more territory from security forces in crisis-hit Anbar province.

The twin setbacks for authorities, grappling with Iraq´s worst period of unrest since the country emerged from a sectarian war that killed tens of thousands, come just months before a parliamentary election.

UN chief Ban Ki-moon and other diplomats have urged Iraq´s leaders to seek political reconciliation to resolve nationwide violence and the standoff in Anbar.

But Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki has ruled out dialogue with militants as his forces have launched wide-ranging security operations.

However the operations, which authorities say have led to the death or capture of several militants affiliated with the Al-Qaeda-linked Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), have not stopped the bloodshed.

Eight car bombs hit civilian targets in majority-Shiite or confessionally mixed neighbourhoods of the capital, killing 37 people.

One of them struck a packed market in the Shaab neighbourhood, while another detonated outside a restaurant on Sanaa Street, killing five people and badly damaging the restaurant and adjacent buildings, an AFP journalist reported.

The windows of nearby shops were shattered, the restaurant´s ceiling partially caved in and blood and mangled vehicle parts scattered across the street.

The Baghdad carnage could have been much worse, with police saying they managed to thwart four suicide bombers with explosives-rigged vehicles.

A suicide bombing at a funeral in Buhruz, in religiously mixed Diyala province north of Baghdad, killed 16 people and wounded 20, officials said.

The funeral was for a member of the Sahwa, the Sunni tribal militia who sided with the US military against their co-religionists in Al-Qaeda from 2006, helping turn the tide against the jihadists.

They are often targeted by Sunni militants who regard them as traitors.Farther north, 13 people, including nine soldiers, were killed in and around the city of Mosul.