(Agencies)
Updated: 2008-04-15 19:19

BAGHDAD - Car bombs ripped through crowded areas during Tuesday's lunch hour in the former insurgent strongholds of Baqouba and Ramadi as more than 50 people were killed in one of the deadliest days in Iraq in months.

In Baqouba, at least 38 people died and dozens of others were wounded when an explosives-laden car blew up near a restaurant across the street from the courthouse and provincial government offices in the city center, a police officer said.

The explosion happened just before noon, when the area was crowded with people visiting government offices and eating lunch at the restaurant.

The officer is in the Diyala provincial police command but spoke on condition of anonymity because he wasn't authorized to release the information.

He said that more than 40 people also were wounded.

In Ramadi, 14 people died when a car bomb exploded outside a kebab restaurant west of the city center around lunchtime, police Lt. Col. Jubair al-Dulaimi said.

Ramadi is the capital of Anbar province. The area has seen a sharp decline in violence in recent months as tribal leaders have joined forces with the Americans against al-Qaida in Iraq.

Al-Dulaimi said 14 other people were wounded in the blast.