BAGHDAD: A wave of attacks in Iraq, mostly targeting Shias, including a spate of market bombings, killed 47 people yesterday, raising fears of a revival of brutal sectarian conflict.
Nationwide unrest is at its worst level since 2008, with the UN saying more than 2,500 people died from April through June, as Iraq grapples with a protracted political deadlock and months of protests among its Sunni minority.
No group immediately claimed responsibility for the attacks, but most of the violence struck Shia targets. The deadliest violence struck the capital, with several car bombs ripping through markets, mostly in Shia areas of Baghdad, where 34 people were killed, security officials said.
Vehicles rigged with explosives went off minutes apart at around 6pm in packed shopping districts of the Shuala, Kamaliyah, Shaab, Hurriyah and Abu Tcheer neighbourhoods. “I was watching TV and then I heard a very loud explosion,” said Ahmed Ibrahim, a day labourer whose apartment balcony was completely destroyed by the car bomb in Kamaliyah.
Car bombs also went off in the Shia southern cities of Basra, Amara and Samawa, killing a total of three people and wounding nearly 50 more. Shootings elsewhere in Baghdad killed four more people, while bombings in the cities of Abu Ghraib, Kirkuk, Baquba and Mosul killed six people and wounded 24. A car bomb was defused in Hilla, south of the capital. AFP
