Iraqi officials say multiple bombings have killed at least 40 people in the mainly Shi'ite town of Khalis, north of Baghdad. Police say coordinated attacks occurred within minutes of each other in the town Thursday.
In other violence, a bomb at a Baghdad market killed three people. South of the capital (in Mahmudiyah), bomb attacks killed six people. And two bodyguards were killed during an attack on the head of Iraq's traffic police Jaafar al-Khafaji.
In the northern city of Mosul, U.S. forces killed four men during a raid targeting suspected insurgents.
On the diplomatic front, the new U.S. ambassador to Iraq said that country is "the most critical foreign policy challenge" facing the United States, and he said much more needs to be done to stabilize the war-torn nation. Ryan Crocker was sworn in at the U.S. embassy in Baghdad Thursday.
Crocker urged the Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki to continue to take steps to unify the country.
Crocker, who served as U.S. ambassador to Pakistan, arrived in Baghdad directly from Islamabad. He takes over for Zalmay Khalilzad, who will be the next U.S. ambassador to the United Nations. Crocker is a fluent Arabic speaker. - VOA News
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