BAGHDAD - Bombers killed 53 Iraqis in nearly two dozen attacks spanning the country Wednesday, mostly targeting security forces in seemingly coordinated strikes the day after the number of US troops fell below 50,000 for the first time since the start of the war. Insurgents have been stepping up their attacks on Iraq's security forces in recent months as the US has trimmed its military presence in the country. At least half of those killed …quot; 30 …quot; were Iraqi soldiers and policemen. There were no claims of responsibility for the spate of attacks. But their scale and reach, from one end of the country to the other, underscored insurgent efforts to prove their might against security forces and political leaders who are charged with the day-to-day running and stability of Iraq. The deadliest attack came in Kut, 100 miles (160 kilometres) southeast of Baghdad, where a suicide bomber blew up a car inside a security barrier between a police station and the provincial government's headquarters. Police and hospital officials said 19 people were killed, 15 of them policemen. An estimated 90 people were wounded. "I rushed to the scene to help evacuate the people, and saw body parts and hands scattered on the ground and dead bodies of policemen," said government employee Yahya al-Shimari. "I also saw a traffic policeman lying dead on the ground. There were about 15 cars that were burnt." "There were so many wounded people that the hospital was not able to take all of them," said Dr. Walid Khalid of the Kut Hospital. A similar attack struck a neighborhood in north Baghdad, where a suicide bomber detonated a car bomb in a parking lot behind a police station.
