BAGHDAD, May 24 (Xinhuanet) -- Nearly 50 Iraqis were killed Mondayas insurgents launched a new wave of attacks throughout the country, bringing the number of people killed by militants to some 600 since a new Iraqi government was inaugurated at the end of April.

    Two car bombs went off on Monday outside a residence in the town of Tal Afar, some 80 km west of Mosul, killing at least 20 people and wounding dozens more, witnesses said.

    Police sources said the twin blasts appeared to have targeted Hasan Baktash, a Shiite sheikh with ties to the Kurdistan Democratic Party.

    In the ethnically-mixed town of Mahmudiyah, some 30 km south of Baghdad, 10 people were killed and over 30 others injured when a suicide bomber detonated a car bomb outside a mosque.

    In capital Baghdad, a car bomb exploded at lunchtime in the carpark of a crowded restaurant in a Shiite district, killing eight people and wounding dozens more.

    Rumors have it that the restaurant had received warnings not toserve policemen guests, while hospital sources did not specify whether the victims included police officers.

    Also on Monday, two Iraqi soldiers were killed by mortar shellsin Samarra, where four US soldiers were slightly injured in another attack on a US military compound.

    In northern Iraq, a pick-up truck driver blew himself up in thetown hall in Tuz Khurmatu, some 70 km south of Kirkuk, killing five and wounding 19 others.

    Another two people were killed and two more injured in Kirkuk when a mortar round landed on a house, police said.

    Monday's wave of deadly attacks began when Major General Wael al-Rubaei, an official of Iraq's National Security Ministry, came under intense fire from two cars driving by in Baghdad.

    The official was assassinated along with his driver. Reports said Abu Musab al-Zarqawi's group had claimed responsibility for the killing.

    Attacks in war-torn Iraq have consistently targeted people who the insurgents say were working for the US forces.

    There have been at least 20 assassinations of Iraqis holding key government, political or religious posts since the new government was announced April 28.

    On Monday, the US military also announced the deaths of four USsoldiers in Iraq, one killed in a bomb attack in Tikrit and three others in separate attacks in Mosul on Sunday.

    Altogether, up to 600 people, including around 50 US soldiers, have been killed in an escalation of attacks following the installation of the new Iraqi government.

    As bloodshed goes on, 2,500 Iraqi soldiers backed by US troops have started a large scale anti-insurgency operation dubbed "Operation Squeeze Play."

    The operation, centered in western Baghdad's Abu Ghraib district, targets militants suspected of attacking the US detention facilities there and the road linking downtown to the international airport.

    A statement from the US military Monday said 285 suspects had been arrested in the largest joint US-Iraqi offensive against suspected insurgents. Enditem