Deadly wave of car bombs strikes Iraq
At least 46 killed and about 176 injured in coordinated bombings targeting mainly Shia areas in Baghdad and Basra.
A wave of 13 car bombs has struck mainly Shia areas in and around the Iraqi capital, Baghdad, killing at least 46 people and injuring hundreds more, security and medical officials have said.
A car bomb also targeted a market in the centre of southern city of Basra killing at least three people on Monday, security sources told Al Jazeera.
The deadliest of Monday’s attacks occurred near a taxi terminal in the city of Kut, 150km southeast of the capital, police said. At least five people were killed and 38 injured when two car bombs blew up.
Elsewhere, a magnetic “sticky bomb” killed a police captain in Anbar province.
Four more died in a blast in the town of Mahmoudiya, about 30km south of Baghdad.
The rest of the bombings took place across Baghdad, in Sadr city, Habibiya, Hurriya, Bayaa, Ur, Shurta, Kadhimiya, Tobji, Shua’ala and Risala neighbourhoods, Reuters news agency reported.
One of the Baghdad bombings struck near a place where day labourers wait for work in the overwhelmingly Shia area of Sadr City, killing five people and wounding 17, according to AFP.
A relentless campaign of bombings and shootings has killed nearly 4,000 people in Iraq since the start of the year, according to violence monitoring group Iraq Body Count.
The violence has raised fears of a return to full-blown conflict in a country where Kurds, Shia and Sunni Muslims have yet to find a stable way of sharing power.
In July alone, more than 810 people have lost their lives in attacks.