Seven apparently coordinated bomb attacks killed at least 24 people in the northern Iraqi oil hub city of Kirkuk on Tuesday, police and hospital sources said.
The bombings occurred a day after Al-Qaeda in Iraq named a successor to its leader Abu Musab Al-Zarqawi, who was killed in a US air strike last week. The group vowed to carry on with a campaign of suicide bombings and beheadings.
A car bomb exploded outside the house of a senior police officer in Kirkuk, seriously wounding him and killing one of his bodyguards, police said.
When police and US forces gathered in the area a roadside bomb exploded, killing 10 civilians and wounding 11.
Another roadside bomb exploded outside a law college, killing one person and wounding two.
A car bomb targeting a police patrol killed 10 civilians and wounded two policemen.
A suicide bomber in a car was shot by guards as he tried to attack the police headquarters in Kirkuk. He blew himself up, killing two policemen and wounding 10 civilians.
Another suicide bomber in a car blew himself up at one of the local offices of a Kurdish party headed by Iraqi President Jalal Talabani, wounding two people, police said.
Shortly afterwards, a suicide bomber in a car was shot by guards as he tried to attack the building.
Kirkuk, 250 km north of Baghdad, is a divided city of several ethnic groups and its fate is a highly explosive, unresolved issue.
