Thirty killed in three bombings in Baghdad

Three bombs have exploded in Shi’ite parts of Baghdad, killing 30 people, police and medical officials said, continuing a wave of attacks targeting Iraq’s majority religious group.

Baghdad’s largest Shi’ite neighbourhood, Sadr City, was rocked by two blasts: a bomb in the late afternoon that killed six people near a marketplace, and a car bomb at a police checkpoint that killed 16 people and wounded 30, according to medical and police officials. In Kahdimiya, in western Baghdad, a car bomb killed eight civilians and wounded 21 others at the main checkpoint to the district, police and medical officials said. The death toll rose from an initial figure officials gave of 22.

There was no claim for the bombings, but the Shi’ite-government has been at war with Islamic State across central and western Iraq.

The group has been sending car bombs and suicide attackers into Baghdad at a steady rate for the last two years, devastating the capital’s mostly Shi’ite neighborhoods.

Islamic State claimed a string of attacks targeting both Sadr City and Kahdimiya on Sunday that left 45 dead. – (Reuters)