Multiple car bomb attacks on Iraqi police have left dozens of people, including women and children, killed across the violence-wracked country.
At least 15 people were killed on Wednesday when an explosive-laden vehicle was blown up at around 8:00 a.m. (0500 GMT), targeting a police checkpoint in Baghdad's northeast Qahira neighborhood.
There were two women, two children and two police officers among those killed in the blast which also left dozens of others wounded, AFP quoted medics and hospital officials as saying.
Elsewhere, a car bomb detonated at a passport office in Kut, 160 kilometers (100 miles) southeast of Baghdad, killing at least 10 police forces and five civilians, and wounding 45 more.
A string of car bomb attacks in five other towns and cities raised the nationwide death toll to 41, and almost 200 wounded.
Iraqi police have been the target of coordinated militant attacks across the country in what Iraqi officials have condemned as aimed at undermining the capability of Iraqi police in restoring security in the absence of US troops.
Iraq remains a scene of bomb blasts and deadly terror attacks which broke out in the wake of the US-led invasion of the country in 2003.
The Iraqis' security plight has been worsened as major political parties have not yet been able to agree on the formation of a new government months after the inconclusive general elections of March 7.
