A spate of deadly bombings struck Baghdad and the northern city of Kirkuk within 24 hours on Wednesday evening and Thursday, leaving up to 65 people killed and some 145 others injured.

Residents gather at the site of a bomb attack in Baghdad's Shula district May 21, 2009. A parked car bomb ripped through the poor mostly Shi'ite district of Shula in northwest Baghdad on Wednesday, killing 35 people and wounding 72 others near a popular restaurant, police said. [Xinhua]

The most deadly attack on Thursday was in Baghdad's southern district of Doura when a suicide bomber detonated at the crowded popular market of Athoriyin, killing 12 civilians and wounding 25 others, a police source said.

The bomber targeted US soldiers on patrol at the entrance of the marketplace, the source said, quoting police reports as saying that three US soldiers were killed in the attack and five others wounded.

The US military has no immediate comment on the incident.

The market attack came shortly after a bomb hidden in a garbage container outside the al-Ma'moon police station in western Baghdad exploded, killing two policemen and wounding 12 others, along with wounding eight civilians, the source said.

Also in Baghdad, a roadside bomb went off near a police patrol in Baghdad's southeastern neighborhood of Zaafaraniyah, wounding three policemen and two civilians, he said.

Early in the day, Iraq's northern city of Kirkuk was also the scene of a suicide bomb attack in which the bomber struck a crowd of Awakening Council groups members at a military base in the city, killing seven members and an Iraqi Army soldier, along with wounding seven group members, police said.

A woman walks beside a damaged vehicle at the site of a bomb attack in Baghdad's Shula district May 21, 2009. [Xinhua]

The bomber targeted the US-backed group members, who were gathering to collect their salaries at the base in the city, some 250 km north of Baghdad.

The suicide bomber disguised in the uniform of the group members, the source said.

The source blamed the al-Qaida in Iraq network for the attack which carries the fingerprints of the terrorists al-Qaida organization.

The Awakening Council groups, also known Sahwa in Arabic, are militant groups who fight the extremist Sunni militants of al-Qaida in Iraq network.

Most of the councils are originally Sunni anti-US insurgent groups who turned their rifles against al-Qaida after rifts emerged between Sunni Arab community and al-Qaida as the latter adopted a hardline Islam and exercised indiscriminate killings against both Shiite and Sunni Muslim communities.

Thursday's attacks followed a deadly car bombing near a popular restaurant in Baghdad's northwestern neighborhood of Shualaa on Wednesday evening, killing up to 40 people and wounding 83 others, the police said.

US soldiers examine the scene of a suicide bombing in Kirkuk, Iraq, Thursday, May 21, 2009. [Xinhua]

The powerful blast also destroyed at least 10 nearby civilian cars and several nearby shops and eateries.

The latest bloodshed arouses fears of a return of al-Qaida-style bomb attacks aimed at sparking sectarian strife that threatened to bring the country to the edge of civil war two years ago.

At least 355 Iraqis were killed in April, making it the bloodiest month this year.

(Xinhua News Agency May 22, 2009)