Baghdad blasts kill 63 as tensions rise

BAGHDAD - A rash of bombings hit Baghdad on Thursday, killing at least 63 people in the first big attack on Iraq's capital since a crisis between its Shiite Muslim-led government and Sunni rivals erupted days after the US troop withdrawal.

The apparently coordinated bombings were the first sign of rising violence after Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki moved to sideline two Sunni Muslim leaders, just a few years after sectarian bloodletting drove Iraq to the edge of civil war.

At least 18 people were killed when a suicide bomber driving an ambulance detonated the vehicle near a government office in the Karrada district, sending up a dust cloud and scattering car parts into a kindergarten, police and health officials said.