Militants have killed at least 53 people in apparently co-ordinated attacks on Iraqi security forces, less than a week before US troops formally end combat operations.
More than 200 people were wounded in the bombings.
In the southern city of Kut, 150km southeast of Baghdad, a suicide car bomber killed at least 26 policemen and wounded 87, Lieutenant Colonel Aziz al-Amarah, commander of the rapid response police force in the province of Wasit, said.
‘Parts of the building collapsed and there are still policemen's bodies, including the police chief, under the rubble,’ he said.
In Baghdad, a truck bomb killed 15 people and wounded at least 56 others in an attack on another police station, Interior Ministry and police sources said.
Parts of the police station in Baghdad's northern Qahira district collapsed and surrounding houses were damaged.
Baghdad security spokesman Major General Qassim al-Moussawi put the death toll at four, with 35 wounded.
In the Shia holy city of Kerbala, southwest of Baghdad, at least 29 people were wounded when a car bomb went off near a police station.
In Baghdad's al-Amil district, gunmen killed one policeman and wounded another at a checkpoint while in the mainly Shia district of Kadhimiya, a car bomb killed at least three people and wounded 14 others.
In Buhriz, about 60km northeast of Baghdad, gunmen placed bombs near the houses of policemen and raised the flag of al-Qaeda's Iraqi affiliate on one of the buildings, police sources said.
Five people were wounded.
Other attacks in Diyala province, in the westerly Anbar province, and the northern city of Kirkuk brought the overall death toll from the seemingly coordinated attacks to over 50. The security forces appeared to be the main target.
Last week, at least 57 recruits and soldiers were killed and 123 wounded in one of Iraq's bloodiest attacks this year when a suicide bomber blew himself up at an army recruitment centre in Baghdad.
