Iraqi police say at least 18 people have been killed and nearly 40 others wounded in a series of bombings in northern Iraq.
Police say most of the attacks were carried out Tuesday by suicide car bombers who detonated their explosives-filled vehicles near security checkpoints around the town of Hawija, close to the oil city of Kirkuk.
In Baghdad, a car bomb exploded near a police patrol. Police said there were casualties but no confirmed figure was immediately available.
Meanwhile, the U.S. military says coalition forces are hunting down insurgents in the northwestern town of Tal Afar, near the Syrian border.
A U.S. television network (CNN) says dozens of tanks, bradley fighting vehicles and Apache helicopters have moved into the town, which is said to be stronghold of insurgents.
Separately, one U.S. Marine has died of wounds sustained in a roadside bomb blast Monday in the city of Fallujah.