Iraq Car Bomb Attacks Kill Dozens In Baghdad
Car bombs explode across Baghdad's mostly Shi'ite districts amid continuing violence between the Iraqi army and Sunni fighters.
Wednesday 15 January 2014 09:09, UK
At least 75 people have been killed in a series of bomb blasts in Iraq, authorities in the country have said.
Car bombs exploded across the Iraqi capital Baghdad's mostly Shi'ite districts, killing dozens and wounding many more, police and hospital sources said.
In the deadliest single incident, a bomb blew up in a funeral tent in Buhriz - 35 miles north of Baghdad - where mourners were marking the death of a Sunni Muslim pro-government fighter.
At least 16 people were killed and 26 wounded, according to one report.
In Baghdad itself, a series of bombings killed at least 28 people.
Five shoppers were killed by a parked car bomb in the northern Shula neighbourhood, and another three also died in another blast nearby.
In Baghdad's southern suburb of Hussainya, a car bomb killed four civilians, officials said, while in the capital's eastern Palestine Street, a car bomb killed three civilians.
Another market bombing killed three civilians in the eastern Maamil area, police said.
An explosion in the Shaab neighbourhood killed four people, while two bombs in the Karrada area killed six more people, medical officials said.
Nearly a hundred people were injured in the Baghdad attacks.
These latest attacks indicate that, two years after US troops left Iraq, violence has climbed back to its highest levels since the Sunni-Shi'ite bloodshed of 2006-2007, when tens of thousands of people were killed.
No organisation immediately said they were responsible but al Qaeda-linked militants are believed to be behind the attacks which were mostly directed at state targets, Shi'ite civilians and Sunnis seen as loyal to the Shi'ite-led government.
The violence occurred amid a continuing standoff between the Iraqi army and Sunni militants who overran the city of Fallujah west of Baghdad more than two weeks ago in a challenge to prime minister Nouri al Maliki's government.
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