Attacks were launched in six provinces in violence reminiscent of what was typical during the height of the sectarian war.

In the northern city of Mosul, a suicide car bomber killed two at a checkpoint manned by Kurdish Peshmerga forces.

Many of the shootings and bombings targeted security forces.

The deadliest attack happened in Hilla, in the southern province of Babil. Three bombings there killed at least 36 people and wounded 140. First came a double car bombing that killed at least 23 people and wounded 110, the Interior Ministry said. The suicide bomber struck as medics and security forces responded to those blasts, killing and wounding more.

The first two bombs in Hilla detonated near a weaving factory busy where employees were leaving work.

Other attacks happened in Baghdad, Mosul, Falluja and in cities north and south of Baghdad.

The attacks come at a critical time in Iraq, as the country is struggling to form a government after contentious national elections, a process that Western officials have described as "lagging."

No one has claimed responsibility for the attacks, but such coordinated assaults bear the hallmarks of al Qaeda in Iraq, which is known to take advantage of political fissures to carry out attacks to create turmoil.

Iraqi and U.S. security forces have reported significant progress recently in their battle against al Qaeda in Iraq. They recently said, for example, that a joint U.S.-Iraqi operation killed the organization's two top leaders, Abu Ayyub al-Masri and Abu Omar al-Baghdadi.