BAGHDAD, March 1: Twenty-nine people were killed in Baghdad on Wednesday, most of them in a car bomb attack, a day after multiple bombings in Iraq left 64 dead and revived fears of civil war.

In the north of the country, guerillas killed three policemen and kidnapped 16 others in an ambush on a road.

The ambush took place as the policemen were returning from training in Sulaimaniyah to Tikrit aboard seven minibuses.

The assailants opened fire with machineguns on the convoy, killing three policemen and wounding eight, some of them seriously. They then made off with 16 policemen aboard two of the minibuses.

In the capital, bombers struck in the multi-confessional southeastern neighbourhood of Jadid at about midday, killing 23 and wounding 58 by blowing up a car on the main road which also housed a market.

Six others were killed in separate bombings and shootings across the country, leaving a total of 29 dead. About 80 people were wounded in the attacks.

The upsurge in violence reinforced fears of a return to communal bloodletting that followed the bombing of a shrine last week. Hundreds were killed in the violence triggered by the shrine bombing.

One of the bloodiest attacks was a car bomb on Tuesday evening outside a mosque in Baghdad’s northwestern Al Hurriya neighbourhood, which killed 25.

The blast came just hours after three bombs exploded in quick succession in mixed Shia-Sunni areas in the capital, killing another 30 people.

The fresh violence jolted feverish US and Iraqi efforts to restore stability after the lifting of a curfew and traffic ban on Monday.

US State Department coordinator on Iraq James Jeffrey said US and Iraqi security forces had brought the situation under control nearly a week after the bombing of the shrine touched off a burst of communal carnage.

“Right now, by Iraq’s standards, it’s calm and back to normal,” Mr Jeffrey told reporters after six days of violence. —AFP