BAGHDAD, June 2: At least 33 people were killed in a wave of violence that swept over northern Iraq on Thursday, as Baghdad vowed that all groups in the fragmented country would take part in the political process. The deadliest blast, in the town of Tuz Khurmatu, ripped through a restaurant as bodyguards of Deputy Prime Minister Roj Shaways, a Kurd, were having breakfast.

“Seven cars were destroyed and 12 charred bodies were pulled from the wreckage,” said a defence ministry statement. A local medic said he had treated 38 people for their wounds. The guards were in the town, 70 kilometres south of the main oil hub of Kirkuk, on their way to meet up with Mr Shaways.

An hour later, a second suicide car bombing targeted a US diplomatic convoy entering the complex of the Northern Oil Company in Kirkuk, killing a four-year-old child and wounding 11 civilians, police said. Four more people were killed, including a local politician, and five others wounded in a suicide car bomb attack in Baquba, about 60 kilometres north of Baghdad, an Iraqi security source said.

To the northwest, five people were killed in an attack targeting the country’s fledgling security forces in Mosul. “Five people, including a policeman, were killed and 13 wounded in a double motorcycle bombing around in front of a cafe near a police station,” said Commander Mootaz Abdel Wahed Mohammed.

Two clashes between US and Iraqi forces and insurgents later killed two Iraqi troops and a gunman, and a Turkish truck driver. In nearby Siniyah, an Iraqi soldier died and another was injured during a mortar attack on their base, another officer added, while further north in the Chorgat region, four civilians were killed by a roadside bomb.

“A family was driving from Mosul to Chorgat when their vehicle was hit by the explosion,” Captain Assad Sadad said. But in Baghdad, police said they had thwarted a suicide attack, with the bomber forced to detonate his charge before reaching his target, wounding one policeman.