Attacks kill at least 51 people in Iraq

BAGHDAD, Iraq -- A series of attacks killed at least 51 people across Iraq Thursday, including 43 within a half hour in a Shiite section of Baghdad, officials said. Scores were wounded in the attacks, part of a violent week that has seen hundreds slain.\nThe closely spaced attacks in an eastern part of the capital included two car bombs -- one at a popular market and one on a street about 1.5 miles away. The area also was hit by four mortar rounds, two rockets, a roadside bomb and a bomb in a building, police said.\nThe dead and 126 wounded were taken to four hospitals, and it was not immediately clear how many casualties each attack had caused, police and hospital officials said.\nEarlier, a suicide car bomber in Baghdad killed two people and a British embassy convoy came under attack. Two passers-by were injured in the attack against the convoy.\nThe U.S. military reported that an American soldier was killed in Anbar province Wednesday by a bomb blast.\nSpeaking after a Cabinet meeting, Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki said Iraqi forces will assume responsibility for Dhi Qar province in the south, making it the second out of 18 provinces that the Iraqis would control.\n"This makes us optimistic and proud because we managed to fulfill our promise," al-Maliki said. \nThe Iraqis took over Muthanna province in the south from the British in July.\n"This year will witness the handing over of other provinces, and we hope that by the end of the year, our security forces will take over most of the Iraqi provinces," al-Maliki said.\nDhi Qar is populated mainly by Shiite Muslims. Compared to more volatile areas such as Anbar province in the west and Baghdad, it has been spared much of the sectarian violence. However, U.S. commanders have said recently that they are worried about the growing influence of Shiite militias in the area, many of whom they say receive support from Iran.\nHanding over territory from coalition control to Iraqi control is a key part of any eventual drawdown of U.S. troops in the country.\nOn Wednesday, the top U.S. commander in Iraq, Gen. George Casey, said Iraqi troops were on course to take over security control from U.S.-led coalition forces.\n"I don't have a date, but I can see, over the next 12 to 18 months, the Iraqi security forces progressing to a point where they can take on the security responsibilities for the country with very little coalition support," he said.