Dec 16, 2009, 0:13 GMT
Baghdad - At least 10 people were killed and 74 injured in fresh violence across Iraq on Tuesday, police told the German Press Agency dpa.
Three apparently coordinated blasts in central Baghdad killed at least four people and injured at least 14, a week after four blasts in the same area left more than 100 dead and hundreds more injured, police said.
One of the blasts took place outside the heavily fortified 'Green Zone,' in a garage close to the Iranian embassy, destroying 15 cars. A second blast struck near the Foreign Ministry and the Ministry of Migration, and a third exploded near a popular restaurant.
A cameraman for Iran's English-language Press TV was among the injured, the station said on its website.
The blasts, coming on the tail of one of the bloodiest attacks in Iraq this year, sparked renewed calls for reform of the country's security services.
Speaker of parliament Iyad al-Samarrai said Iraq's intelligence services 'had not been equal to the challenges,' though parliament had provided them with sufficient money to prevent attacks.
He further said parliament was committed 'to removing Iraq's security services from the political conflict, 100 per cent,' a reference to charges that the security services had been infiltrated by sectarian militants and militiamen.
Violence also continued in the troubled northern city of Mosul on Tuesday, police there told dpa, with three bombs exploding across the city, killing at least six people and injuring at least 60 more.
Most of the casualties, all civilians, were from two car bombs in a crowded, ancient district in the city centre, police said.
Baghdad's al-Sharq al-Awsat news agency cited police as saying that the apparent target of the Mosul blasts was the local church in the district of al-Shafaa.
Police later told dpa that a third blast had injured five people outside Mosul's Mar Afram church, in the eastern district of Mohandisseen.
Religious and community leaders from the city's large Christian minority in recent weeks have told dpa that local Christians have been subject to an escalating campaign of attacks and threats ahead of the March parliamentary elections.
Mosul and its environs are among Iraq's most ethnically and religiously diverse regions, and among the most dangerous.
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