Series of attacks kills at least 36 in Iraq

BAGHDAD (AP) — A series of bomb and mortar shell attacks in and around Baghdad killed at least 36 people, Iraqi officials said Thursday, in an assault that underscored the threat posed to the Iraqi capital by marauding Islamic militants that have seized large parts of country.

At least 15 people alone were killed in an apparently coordinated assault the northern Shiite district of Khazimiyah, according to police. A suicide bomber rammed his explosives-laden car into a security checkpoint there late in the evening. Minutes later, three mortar shells landed in different parts of the district, hitting houses and a bus station.