Al-Qaida claims Iraq's worst violence in month

The sudden spike dashed hopes that Iraq was calming and raised fears of escalating sectarian violence in the turmoil following the U.S. military pullout last December.

Lawmakers representing Iraq's minorities denounced the bloodshed as a tragic but inevitable result of the Shiite-led government's attempts to sideline them and dominate Iraqi politics.

The Islamic State of Iraq, as al-Qaida in Iraq calls itself, said it targeted security forces and government officials in "response to the campaign of detaining, torture, embargo and confiscation of lands of Sunni people, especially in Baghdad and its outskirts."

The claim was posted on militant websites.

Al-Qaida said the Thursday morning wave that struck 10 cities across Iraq, killing at least 30 and wounding 117, was just the beginning of a prolonged series of attacks.

Al-Qaida and other Sunni militant groups have stepped up attacks on Shiites since the U.S. pullout, raising concern of a new surge in sectarian violence.

A lull since mid-March had led many to hope Iraq had turned a corner away from widespread violence. That hope collapsed Thursday as at least 14 bombs and mortar shells exploded across Iraq.

Six of the bombings struck at security forces and government officials, frequent targets for insurgents.

In Baghdad, 12 people were killed, most of them in Shiite neighborhoods. Other targets were in northern Iraqi cities, including Samarra, where a 2006 mosque bombing touched off the worst of the insurgency; the ethnically mixed city of Kirkuk, and deposed dictator Saddam Hussein's hometown of Tikrit.