50 Die in Rising Iraq Violence

'Multiple-Fatality' Bombings Reach Highest Level Since Invasion

Relatives grieve during the funeral for Naji Lateef, who was killed in Baghdad Monday by a bomb. Such attacks have risen steadily since December elections. (By Karim Kadim -- Associated Press)

BAGHDAD, May 30 -- A series of car bombings and other attacks killed more than 50 Iraqis and one U.S. soldier on Tuesday, evidence of a new intensity in the violence in Iraq and underlining the security problems facing the country's 10-day-old government.

In an indicator of rising violence, more "multiple-fatality" bombings -- involving at least three deaths -- occurred this month than in any other since the war began in 2003, according to the Brookings Institution, which issues a twice-weekly report of security and reconstruction statistics. The report this week noted 44 such bombings as of May 25; since then, that number has risen above 50. The next-worst month was September 2005, with 46.

U.S. commanders have warned for weeks that the country's Sunni Arab insurgent movement, which they say is led by the group al-Qaeda in Iraq, would unleash an all-out offensive to weaken the new government's authority and stoke hatred between Sunni and Shiite Muslims.

Statistics indicate that violence has been escalating steadily for months, particularly since the bombing of a Shiite shrine in Samarra north of Baghdad on Feb. 22 kicked off a wave of sectarian killing. According to Brookings, there were 21 multiple-fatality bombings in December, when national elections were held for the new government. In January, there were 30; in February, 39; in March, 37, and in April, 40.

The number of people killed in these bombings has gradually climbed, as well, from 174 in December to 293 in April. This month's death toll is well over 300.

A tally of war-related deaths compiled by the Associated Press shows at least 4,066 Iraqis have been killed in 2006, 871 of them in May. These numbers are likely to be low due to a lack of complete reporting

The violence has not spared American troops. U.S. military authorities reported that a soldier in the 172nd Stryker Brigade Combat Team was killed by gunfire on Monday in the northern city of Mosul, and another soldier was killed on Tuesday by a roadside bomb while on patrol southeast of Baghdad. The military also said that it had found the bodies of two Marine helicopter pilots killed in what they described as an accidental crash west of Baghdad on Saturday.

In Tuesday's deadliest incident, at least 25 people were killed and more than 50 injured when a car bomb exploded near a bus stop in Husseiniyah, about 20 miles north of Baghdad, Maj. Gen. Hussein Kamal, a deputy interior minister, said in a televised statement. American and Iraqi forces sealed off the area, and the cellphone network was shut down.

Another car bombing, in Hilla, about 60 miles south of Baghdad, killed 12 people and wounded 32. The bomb exploded in an auto dealers' area, police Capt. Muthanna Ahmad said.

A third bomb exploded in front of a bakery in Baghdad, killing 10 people, the al-Arabiya television network reported Tuesday night.

The Associated Press reported that at least seven other Iraqis died in a mortar attack and several shootings.

The attacks came a day after another string of bombings, one of which killed a U.S. soldier, two CBS News staff members and an Iraqi interpreter and wounded CBS News correspondent Kimberly Dozier and six U.S. soldiers.