BAGHDAD // A wave of bombings hit mainly Shiite and busy commercial areas in and outside Baghdad on Wednesday morning, killing at least 29 people and wounding 104, Iraqi officials said.
The attacks, mostly by car bombs, were part of a surge in violence that has rocked Iraq over the past months as insurgents seek to thwart the Shiite-led government’s efforts to stabilise the country.
Five of Wednesday’s attacks were carried out by parked car bombs while at least two were carried out by remotely detonated bombs, police officials said. The deadliest attack was in the central Sadria neighbourhood, where a parked car bomb went off at an outdoor market, killing five shoppers and wounding 15, they said.
Other attacks took place in Hurriyah, Shaab, Tobchi, Karrada, Azamiyah and Amil neighbourhoods, as well as in the western suburb Abu Ghraib. In eastern Baladiyat, an employee of the Electricity Ministry was killed when a bomb that was attached to his car went off.
The explosion in Karrada sent a towering plume of thick black smoke over the city. Security forces sealed off the area where at least four cars were damaged by the blast and firefighters struggled to extinguish the fire. Four civilians were killed and 14 wounded in that explosion.
Outside the capital, two commuters were killed and nine wounded when a bomb attached to their minibus went off in the southern city of Najaf, about 160 kilometres south of Baghdad.
Medical officials confirmed the casualty figures. All officials spoke on condition of anonymity as they were not authorised to talk to media.
There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attacks, but suicide and large-scale bombings – especially against security forces or crowded markets – are a favourite tactic of Al Qaeda’s local branch and Sunni insurgents.
The surge of attacks followed a deadly security raid on a Sunni protest camp in the country’s north in April. Since then, more than 5,500 people have been killed in attacks by insurgents in Iraq, according to the United Nations.
Wednesday’s attacks bring the death toll across the country this month to 238, according to an Associated Press count.
Associated Press
