Wave of car bombs in Baghdad leave at least 24 dead

Baghdad: A wave of car bombs struck Shiite neighborhoods of Baghdad on Monday morning, killing at least 24 people and wounding dozens, officials said, the latest in relentless violence roiling Iraq in recent months. The deadliest of the day’s bombings was in the eastern Sadr City district, where a parked car bomb tore through a small vegetable market and its parking lot, killing seven people and wounding 16, a police officer said. [caption id=“attachment_1142425” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Representational image. AP[/caption] That was followed by four parked car bombs, which went off in quick sequence in the neighborhoods of New Baghdad, Habibiya, Sabaa al-Bour and Kazimiyah — all striking outdoor markets or parking lots. Those attacks killed a total of 17 civilians and wounded 59, three other police officers said. Four medical officials confirmed the causality figures in Monday’s attacks. All officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to talk to the media. Iraqi militants often target crowded places such as markets, cafes and mosques, seeking to inflict huge numbers of casualties. Attacks in different parts of Iraq — including two suicide bombings in the country’s relatively peaceful northern Kurdish region — killed 46 people on Sunday. No group immediately claimed responsibility for the latest attacks but they bear the hallmarks of al-Qaida’s local branch in Iraq, known as the Islamic State of Iraq. Al-Qaida is believed to be trying to build on the Sunni minority’s discontent toward what they consider to be second-class treatment by Iraq’s Shiite-led government. More than 4,500 people have been killed since April. Associated Press