At least 13 people died in Iraq, 10 of them civilians who were killed in a pair of car bomb attacks in Baghdad. Nine people were killed and another 26 were wounded when a car bomb went off in east Baghdad near the passport office.
One civilian was killed and 13 more were wounded in another car bomb attack in western Baghdad's largely Shiite neighbourhood of Al-Hurriyah.
In a separate attack, a senior traffic police officer was shot dead by gunmen in front of his house in the Dura district of Baghdad. Gunmen also killed two Shiite members of the former Baath party in the southern city of Amara, police said.
Meanwhile, the leader of Iraq's biggest Sunni group demanded Wednesday that the Shiite-led government take steps to disarm militias after police said the bodies of 65 tortured men were dumped in and around Baghdad.
Car bombs, mortars and other attacks on Wednesday killed at least 39 people and wounded dozens. Two U.S. soldiers also died, the U.S. military command said.
Adnan al-Dulaimi, a Sunni who heads the Iraqi Accordance Front political party, urged Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, to take a first step by honoring a pledge to disband militias. "We hope the government carries out what it pledged and disbands militias and considers them terrorist organizations," al-Dulaimi told The Associated Press.
