Baghdad: A wave of fresh violence has been unleashed by insurgents in Baghdad in the past two days with dozens killed and scores of others wounded, as rebels have struck with car bombs near churches and roadside bombs across the country.
Atleast 11 people were reported dead. An ABC Telivision news anchor and a cameraman were also seriously injured in a separate roadside bombing.
The UN representative in Iraq, Ashraf Qazi, said the bombings outside the churches were "a reprehensible act that can only exacerbate sectarian violence".
He called upon Iraqi authorities to preserve the safety of all worshippers and the sanctity of places of worship.
In central Iraq, Bob Woodruff, news anchor with the US television network ABC, and his cameraman Doug Vogt were seriously wounded when the vehicle they were in hit a roadside bomb.
The two were embedded with the US army, but riding in an Iraqi security forces armored vehicle ahead of an eight-vehicle convoy at the time of the attack, ABC reported.
They were flown Monday to a US military medical facility in Landstuhl, Germany, after undergoing surgery in Iraq, ABC News president David Westin said.
The latest rebel attacks came amid chaos in the trial of Saddam on Sunday, with the deposed dictator walking out and his half-brother Barzan al-Tikriti being ejected from the court on the judge's order.
The new Kurdish judge Rauf Rasheed Abdel Rahman left his authoritarian mark on his first day by ejecting Barzan from the court and also taking on Saddam in a heated verbal exchange.
Meanwhile, Iraq's health minister headed to Kurdistan on Monday amidst growing concern over the possibility of the lethal form of avian flu spilling across the border from nearby infected Turkey.
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