BAGHDAD: Bombs in the Iraqi
capital Baghdad and the northern
city of Kirkuk killed 35 people
yesterday, mostly in Shia
Muslim and Kurdish neighbourhoods,
police and medical
sources said.
The five separate attacks come
as Shia militia and Kurdish peshmerga
fighters battle Sunni militants
from the Islamic State who
have taken over large parts of
north and west Iraq.
The sources said a bomb in
Kirkuk killed 15 people and
wounded 20 others in the Shurja
area of the city. The blast was
believed to have been either a car
bomb or a suicide bomber.
In Baghdad, the deadliest
explosions were two car bombs
in the densely populated eastern
district of Sadr City, which killed
15 people and wounded 51, police
and medics said.
A roadside bomb near a small
restaurant in the northern Shia
neighbourhood of Shaab killed
three people and wounded nine,
police said.
Earlier a bomb killed two people
near the Green Zone district
which houses most government
buildings, security and medical
sources said.
The bomb struck 200 metres
from the edge of the zone, they
said. In response, security forces
closed two nearby bridges that
span the Tigris River, linking
eastern and western Baghdad.
Bombings are frequent in the
Iraqi capital but mostly strike
neighbourhoods some distance
from the central district, which
houses the Iraqi parliament and
the US Embassy. REUTERS
