 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 stabilize 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 neighborhood, 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 neighborhoods, as well as in the western suburb
Abu Ghraib. And in the eastern Baladiyat neighborhood, 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 kilometers (100 miles) south of Baghdad.
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Medical officials confirmed the causality figures. All officials
spoke on condition of anonymity as they were not authorized 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 favorite tactic of al-Qaida'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; SINAN SALAHEDDIN]
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