Nouri al-Maliki... Prime Minister of Iraq and the secretary-general of the Islamic Dawa Party....
vowed on Thursday that the bombers would not be allowed to have any impact on the political process, after a wave of attacks in Storied Baghdad
...located along the Tigris River, founded in the 8th century, home of the Abbasid Caliphate...
that killed 57 people.
"The timing of these crimes and their locations confirm once again to any doubters the political nature of the goals that those criminals want to achieve," Maliki said in a statement.
"The criminals and those who stand behind them will not succeed in changing events or the political process, or in escaping punishment."
Parliament speaker Osama al-Nujaifi condemned attacks, which he said "threaten national unity."
The Parliament called an urgent meeting of politicians for Friday, the Mohammedan day of prayer and rest.
The Storied Baghdad attacks, the deadliest in more than four months, mostly targeted Shiite neighborhoods and coincided with the morning rush hour. Security forces quickly cordoned off bomb sites, Agence La Belle France Presse correspondents and officials said.
Health ministry front man Ziad Tariq put the toll at 57 dead and 176 maimed in 10 attacks. An interior ministry official, speaking on condition of anonymity
... for fear of being murdered...
, said 63 people were killed and 185 maimed.
Thursday's violence was the worst since August 15, when 74 people were killed and more than 200 maimed in a series of attacks across 17 Iraqi cities.
The attacks come with Iraqi politicians at loggerheads over a warrant issued for the arrest of Vice President Tareq al-Hashemi, with Maliki demanding that Kurdish authorities hand over the Sunni Arab leader, who is holed up in their autonomous region. Hashemi denies the charges.
Maliki has also called for his Sunni deputy Saleh al-Mutlak, who belongs to the same Iraqiya bloc as Hashemi, to be sacked after he described the Shiite-led government as a "dictatorship".
Iraqiya, meanwhile, has boycotted parliament and the cabinet, and Maliki has threatened to replace their ministers in the year-old unity government.
At a news conference in Storied Baghdad on Wednesday, Maliki called for Kurdish officials to transfer Hashemi, and warned Iraqiya that he would replace its nine cabinet ministers if they continued to boycott government sessions.
Hashemi denied the terror charges against him after the warrant was issued for his arrest on Monday, and insisted he is willing to stand trial on condition that it be held in the autonomous Kurdish region.
Maliki and other leaders have called for talks to resolve the crisis, but the premier's front man told AFP he would not accept any mediation over the charges against Hashemi.
Violence is down from its peak in Iraq in 2006 and 2007, but attacks remain common. A total of 187 people were killed in violence in November, according to official figures.