Baghdad (CNN) -- A series of bombings and shooting attacks struck across Iraq on Monday, killing at least 67 people and wounding 170, authorities told CNN.
The Ministry of Interior called Iraqi security forces to ban people from parking their vehicles on the streets of Baghdad and other cities targeted in the attacks, saying they feared more violence.
The attacks bring to an end a relative period of quiet in Iraq that began in early August, coinciding with the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.
A dozen bombings primarily targeted Iraqi security forces, though the worst attack was a double bombing that targeted civilians on a busy street in central Iraq, authorities said.
At least 34 people were killed when a car bomb followed by a roadside bomb exploded on a busy commercial street in Kut during morning rush-hour, according to police, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to release the information to the media.
Sixty-eight people were wounded in the attack, Dr. Dhiya al-Deen Jalil, the head of the health directorate in Kut, told CNN. He also confirmed the 34 fatalities.
In Twareej, near of the southern holy city of Karbala, a car bomb targeted a police station, killing at least eight people and wounding 20, two officials at the Interior Ministry told CNN. The officials also spoke on condition of anonymity for the same reason as the police.
In northern Iraq, two suicide bombers targeted security forces in Saddam Hussein's hometown of Tikrit, killing at least four policemen and wounding at least 11, the two officials said.
A suicide car bomber targeted an Iraqi army base in Khan Bani Saad, north of Baghdad, killing at least eight people and wounding 21, the ministry officials said.
Four bombs exploded in Baghdad, including two car bombs that targeted an Iraqi army patrol and an education ministry convoy, killing at least one person and wounding 13, the officials said. The other explosions killed two and wounded at least eight, they said.
Attacks also occurred in Najaf, Kirkuk and Baqouba, killing at least 10 people and wounding 29, the ministry officials said.
While violence in Iraq has fallen off in recent years, there has been an increase in attacks targeting civilians and U.S. and Iraqi security forces in recent months. The renewed violence coincides with Iraq's debate about whether to request U.S. troops stay beyond a Jan. 1, 2012, withdrawal deadline.
Stuart Bowen, the U.S. official in charge of overseeing reconstruction in Iraq, says the country is more dangerous now than it was a year ago, according to an agency report to Congress in July.
