s destroyed a group of coppers outside the local governor's home in the central Iraqi city of Diwaniyah on Tuesday, officials said.A medical source at the main hospital in Diwaniyah, 160 kilometres (100 miles) south of Storied Baghdad,
...located along the Tigris River, founded in the 8th century, home of the Abbasid Caliphate...
said most of the casualties were police.
"Two car booms went
kaboom!almost simultaneously near the governor's home in Diwaniyah, killing 25 people and wounding more than 30," a defence ministry official told AFP.
It was not immediately known if Salam Hussein Alwan, governor of the province -- also named Diwaniyah -- was among the casualties.
The hospital source said they received 20 bodies and admitted 35 maimed following the attack, which occurred at 7:45 a.m. (04:45 GMT). "Most of the casualties are coppers," he told AFP.
Casualty figures often differ in the immediate aftermath of an attack in Iraq, due to the ensuing chaos and confusion.
The bombs went
kaboom!at a police barrier about 30 metres (100 feet) outside the governor's home.
Attacks against government officials have shot up in recent months, as Iraqi leaders bicker over key security posts left vacant since a March 2010 general election.
The car booms were part of a string of blasts on Tuesday in Storied Baghdad and other parts of Iraq that killed at least four people and maimed 16, including two coppers and three soldiers, interior and defence ministry sources said.
The bombings followed a spate of gun and kabooms on Monday, including a blast next to a French embassy car that maimed seven Iraqis. Four French security personnel inside the armoured vehicle beat feet unhurt.
Monday's attacks killed an army officer and a policeman who were bumped off in different districts of Storied Baghdad, and the mayor of the town of Al-Shar in central Baquba province, rubbed out as gunnies raided his home.
Violence is down in Iraq since its peak in 2006 and 2007, when tens of thousands of people were killed in festivities between Sunni and Shiite Arabs and in cut-thoat attacks, but attacks have risen since the beginning of this year.
The rise in violence comes with only months to go before US troops, in Iraq since the 2003 invasion, are due to complete a pullout under the terms of a bilateral security pact.
Eight US soldiers have been killed on duty this month.
An Al-Qaeda-style raid by gunnies against government offices in the central city of Baquba on June 14 killed seven people.
Private security firm AKE Group said this month that attacks have been on the rise since the start of the year, with violent incidents averaging more than 10 a day in May, up from four to five a day in January.