Twin explosions kill many in Iraq’s Sadr City

At least 16 people are killed and dozens injured as two bombs go off in Baghdad’s mainly Shia district.

Baghdad Sadr city attack
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The explosions come a day after a spate of attacks killed 23 people [Reuters]

Two bombs have killed at least 16 people and injured dozens in Baghdad’s mostly Shia district of Sadr City, security officials said, a day after the capital suffered its worst attacks in more than a month.

The two roadside bombs detonated at around 8:30 pm local time on Sunday in the Al-Hay market in the northern Baghdad district, officials from the interior and defence ministries said.

Women and children were among the casualties, the officials said.

The latest increase in attacks, two security force members were also killed in separate incidents on Sunday, comes amid discussions between Baghdad and Washington over whether to keep a US training mission in Iraq beyond 2011.

The interior ministry official said gunmen on Sunday shot dead an intelligence officer at a checkpoint in Al-Amil in south Baghdad, while a roadside bomb against an army patrol killed one soldier and wounded two others just outside Tikrit, in Iraq’s north.

Thursday’s violence comes a day after a spate of attacks in the capital mainly targeting security forces, including two suicide car bombs minutes apart against police stations, killed 23 people and wounded more than 70.

The co-ordinated attacks were the deadliest to hit the capital since August 28, when a suicide attack blamed on al-Qaeda at Baghdad’s biggest Sunni mosque killed 28 people, including an MP.

The attacks come less than three months before a year-end withdrawal deadline for the roughly 41,000 US soldiers currently in Iraq, with Baghdad and Washington yet to reach an accord on a post-2011 training mission.

Despite a decline in violence nationwide since its peak in 2006 and 2007, attacks remain common.

A total of 185 Iraqis were killed in violence in September, according to official figures.

Source: News Agencies