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By KIM GAMEL
The Associated Press
Tuesday, April 15, 2008; 7:45 AM
BAGHDAD -- Car bombs ripped through crowded areas at lunch hour in the former Sunni insurgent strongholds of Baqouba and Ramadi on Tuesday as more than 50 people were killed in one of the deadliest days in Iraq in months.
A parked car bomb also targeted a police patrol in central Baghdad, killing four civilians who were passing by and wounding 15 other people, police said.
Nobody claimed responsibility for Tuesday's attacks, but they bore the hallmarks of al-Qaida and came after weeks of few car bombings or suicide attacks.
The first attack occurred in Baqouba, 35 miles northeast of Baghdad, when an explosives-laden car parked in front of a restaurant exploded just before noon across the street from the courthouse and other government offices in the city center.
Many of the victims were people visiting the government offices, petition writers helping people with documents in stalls outside or the occupants of cars that were caught in the explosion as they passed through the area, witnesses said. Several cars and minibuses were set ablaze, while more than 10 shops and the restaurant were heavily damaged.
One man who was there described a huge fire that sent black smoke billowing into the sky and left charred bodies inside their cars.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/04/15/AR2008041500508_pf.html
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