String of attacks make more than 100 victims in Iraq - police and army favourite targets

 Soldiers on the site of an explosion in a bus in Iskanderiya, 50 km south of Baghdad.

More than 100 people have died and 350 been wounded in a series of shootings and suicide bombings in Iraq - the worst day of violence there this year.

The central city of Hilla saw the deadliest attack, where two car bombs exploded in quick succession at the entrance to the textile factory in Hilla, just as workers boarded buses to go home in the middle of the day.
Later, as bystanders and emergency services rushed in to help the wounded, a suicide bomber detonated explosives causing a third explosion.At least 45 people were killed and more than 140 were wounded.
The serirs of violent attacks started at dawn on Monday, when gunmen with silencers fitted to their weapons drove up to checkpoints across Baghdad, killing at least seven police and army officers.
Oteher attacks were a double suicide bombing in a crowded market in the small town of Suwayra, south of Baghdad, killed at least 11 people and wounded more than 40;  three car bombs in the southern city of Basra, which killed at least 20 people and wounding dozens more. There were also attacks in Iskanderiya, south Baghdad, and in Mosul, north of the capital. In the western city of Fallujah, four separate bombs killed four people, while 10 police officers were wounded after explosives were planted outside their homes. Security forces were the apparent target of much of the assault, with patrols and checkpoints manned by local and federal police, as well as the Iraqi national army, all being hit.
Official figures show that 328 people were killed in Iraq in April, slightly fewer than a year ago. The conclusion must be that guerrilla opposition to the US imposed order remains very strong. The government usually blames the violence on Baathist forces and Al-Qaeda (of which in recent weeks a number of its cadres have been arrested) But whoever is behind these attacks, it is clear that the armed opposition is able to perform a string of coordinated attacks and shows that it is capable of  harming  security forces,  checkpoints and even policemen at their homes. .    .