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Dozens killed in Iraq attacks

December 8, 2013

Dozens of people have been killed and many others wounded in multiple bombings in the Baghdad area. These were the latest in a string of attacks that have rocked Iraq this year.

https://p.dw.com/p/1AV8a
A bombed out mini-bus in Baghdad. Photo: Reuters
Image: Reuters

At least 30 people were killed and more than 60 injured in Sunday's bombings, which were carried out mainly at crowded market places and commercial districts in predominantly Shiite Muslim areas in or near the Iraqi capital.

News agence the Associated Press put the casualty figure significantly higher, citing Iraqi medical officials who said that in all 39 people had been killed on Sunday.

The worst attacks came in the mainly Shiite neighbourhood of Bayaa in southern Baghdad, with at least five being killed after a car bomb exploded in an auto shop.

Sunday's violence came a day after 16 people were killed across Iraq, including nine who were shot dead in liquor stores in Baghdad, according to the AFP news agency.

This has been the worst year in terms of violence that Iraq has seen since 2007, when sectarian violence pushed the country to the brink of civil war.

United Nations figures put the death toll from November alone at 659. At least 6,000 have been killed since the start of 2013.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for Sunday's attacks, but Iraqi officials pointed the finger at the al Qaeda terror network.

"Al Qaeda terrorists have been attacking soft targets because they are not able to confront our security forces," Interior Ministry spokesmand Saad Maan Ibrahim told the Associated Press. "They want to send a message that they are still strong."

The latest upsurge in violence began after security forces launched a deadly crackdown on a Sunni protest camp north of the capital back in April. Members of Iraq's Sunni minority say they face discrimination at the hands of the country's Shiite-led government.

pfd/ph (AFP, AP)