Twin suicide bomb attacks on Kurdish parties in the northern Iraqi town of Arbil today killed at least 56 people and wounded 200.
Senior party officials were thought to have been among the crowds celebrating a Muslim feast at the time of the explosions. One of the dead was the deputy governor of Arbil province, witnesses said.
The blasts hit the headquarters of the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) and the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK), the main factions in Iraq's Kurdish north.
Iraq's US-led occupiers and Iraqi security forces have been on high alert for attacks during the Muslim Eid al-Adha holiday, and a string of blasts across the country killed at least 18 people yesterday.
Arbil has been the site of a string of recent attacks, including a car bombing at the interior ministry that killed at least four people in December.