Many killed in Baghdad blasts

One of blasts occurred in the residential Mansour district [AFP]

At least 29 people have been killed in two near-simultaneous car bomb explosions in the Iraqi capital, Baghdad.

In one of Sunday’s incidents, a bomb went off in the busy Adan juncture in the northwestern Kadhimiya district as people were heading to work. Nineteen people were killed in the blast, near an office of the national security ministry.

Security forces said another car bomb in the western Mansour district killed 10 people outside the Zarzour kebab restaurant and the office of the phone company Asiacell.

An official said the victims of both blasts were brought to the same hospital and the chaotic situation made it difficult to give more details about the casualties in each of the blasts.

About 100 people were wounded in the two explosions.

Al Jazeera’s Rawya Rageh, reporting from Baghdad, said officials believed civilians were targets of both attacks.

Green Zone attack

Also on Sunday, a father and son were killed when a magnetic bomb was attached to their car in Ghazaliyah in western Baghdad, an interior ministry official said.

The official said three mortar rounds had also been fired into the capital’s heavily fortified Green Zone, home to many foreign embassies and government buildings, without causing any casualties or damage.

According to government figures, the highest death tolls across Iraq since 2008 have been reported in the past two months.

Our correspondent said: “This comes as US forces have drawn down their presence to under 50,000 soldiers on the ground and as Iraqi politicians remain unable to form a governing coalition, six months after the inconclusive March 7 elections.

“Those who intend to destabilise the country are stepping up their attacks during this period of uncertainty.”