Among the victims was a department head in the youth and sports ministry, Hamid Hassan, who was shot dead by armed men while on his way to work in south Baghdad.

A second unnamed education ministry official met the same fate in the southwest of the capital, a defense ministry source said.

Four policemen were killed when their patrol vehicle was bombed in Jorf al-Sakr, 50 kilometers (30 miles) south of Baghdad, a local security source said.

In the capital, three people were killed in a double bomb attack on a market.

An interior ministry source described the incident as a double car bombing, but a defense ministry source said the explosions were caused by a car bomb and a roadside bomb.

Three police commandos died and three others were wounded when another roadside bomb targeted their patrol in south Baghdad.

Another two civilians were killed and five others wounded, among them two policemen, in a car bomb attack in the Zafaraniyah district of southern Baghdad.

In Baquba, 60 kilometers (35 miles) northeast of Baghdad, five civilians and a police officer were reported killed in separate attacks, local police said, adding that three people had been kidnapped in Muqdadiyah, north of the city.

A police lieutenant was shot to death in Hawija, west of the northern oil hub of Kirkuk.

In Kirkuk itself, police general Nadhim al-Obeidi, who ran the passport department, was shot in the head as he left a gym and later died of his wounds.

The latest violence coincided with the visit by Blair, whose government is the top US ally in Iraq, during which he pledged his support for Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki's new government.

It also came one day after at least 20 insurgents were killed during an attack on an Iraqi army checkpoint at Duluiyah, 70 kilometers (45 miles) north of Baghdad. One soldier also died.

Also on Sunday, a judge, Akram Jomaa, was shot dead in his car in the north of the capital, a security source said.

And a US marine died in fighting in Fallujah, the army announced, raising the toll of US military personnel killed since the March 2003 invasion to 2,456, according to an AFP count based on Pentagon figures.

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