Bomb blasts rock Iraq, kill 69, wound more than 180

More than a dozen bombing and shooting attacks struck Iraq Monday, killing at least 69 people and wounded more than 180, authorities told CNN.

It was the worst wave of violence to strike the country in months, coming just weeks after Iraq's political leaders agreed to request U.S. troops stay beyond a January 1, 2012, deadline to withdraw.

Ministry of Interior officials called on security forces to ban people from parking their vehicles on the streets of cities targeted in the attacks, saying they feared more violence.

Thirteen bombings targeted mostly 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 exploded near 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 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.

A string of explosions rocked Baghdad, killing at least four people and wounding 29, the officials said. Among the attacks were two car bombings that targeted an Iraqi army patrol and an Education Ministry convoy, the said.

Attacks also occurred in Najaf, Kirkuk and Baqouba, killing at least 10 people and wounding 29, the ministry officials said.

In the Sunni-dominated Anbar province, a man building a homemade bomb in his house in Falluja inadvertently detonated it, the officials said. The explosion killed the man's 5-year-old son and wounded his wife and three other children, they 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.

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.

The attacks came at the halfway mark of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, bringing to an end a relative period of calm that began about the same time as the revered religious observance.