Wave of bombings kills 58 across Iraq

At least 58 people have been killed in explosiong in Iraq.

The largest of the bombs, which mainly targeted Shia worshippers, hit the offices of anti-American cleric Muqtada al-Sadr in the Baghdad slum of Sadr City.

Two car bombs and a roadside bomb exploded at about 1.30pm, killing 25 and wounding an estimated 150, according to hospital and police officials.

The blasts left blood streaming down muddy streets. Men carried victims away using bed sheets as stretchers and loaded them into the backs of trucks and rushed them to the hospital. One man fled carrying a girl whose pink dress was stained with blood.

Many at the scene pelted Iraqi security officials with stones when they arrived. Iraqi security officials fired their guns in the air to disperse the crowd.

At least 33 people were killed in other explosions.

Seven died in an attack near Khalidya in Anbar province west of the capital, in which at least six home-made bombs were planted among houses belonging to police officers and a judge.

A spokesman for the Baghdad operations command, Major General Qassim al-Moussawi, called the attacks "a hysterical reaction by al-Qaida operatives in response for the gigantic blows they received by the security forces recently".

"We expect that such attacks will continue," he said.