BAGHDAD, May 21 (Xinhua) -- A spate of deadly
bombings struck Baghdad and the northern city of Kirkuk within 24 hours on
Wednesday evening and Thursday, leaving up to 65 people killed and some 145
others injured.
Residents gather at the site of a bomb
attack in Baghdad's Shula district May 21, 2009. A parked car bomb ripped
through the poor mostly Shi'ite district of Shula in northwest Baghdad on
Wednesday, killing 35 people and wounding 72 others near a popular
restaurant, police said. (Xinhua/Reuters Photo) Photo Gallery>>>
The most deadly attack on Thursday was in Baghdad's
southern district of Doura when a suicide bomber detonated at the crowded
popular market of Athoriyin, killing 12 civilians and wounding 25 others, a
police source said.
The bomber targeted U.S. soldiers on patrol at the
entrance of the marketplace, the source said, quoting police reports as saying
that three U.S. soldiers were killed in the attack and five others wounded.
The U.S. military has no immediate comment on the
incident.
The market attack came shortly after a bomb hidden in
a garbage container outside the al-Ma'moon police station in western Baghdad
exploded, killing two policemen and wounding 12 others, along with wounding
eight civilians, the source said.
Also in Baghdad, a roadside bomb went off near a
police patrol in Baghdad's southeastern neighborhood of Zaafaraniyah, wounding
three policemen and two civilians, he said.
Early in the day, Iraq's northern city of Kirkuk was also the scene of a suicide bomb attack in which the bomber struck a crowd of Awakening Council groups members at a military base in the city, killing seven members and an Iraqi Army soldier, along with wounding seven group members, police said.
A woman walks beside a damaged vehicle at the site of a bomb attack in Baghdad's Shula district May 21, 2009. Xinhua/Reuters Photo) Photo Gallery>>>
The bomber targeted the U.S.-backed group members,
who were gathering to collect their salaries at the base in the city, some 250
km north of Baghdad.
The suicide bomber disguised in the uniform of the
group members, the source said.
The source blamed the al-Qaida in Iraq network for
the attack which carries the fingerprints of the terrorists al-Qaida
organization.
The Awakening Council groups, also known Sahwa in Arabic, are militant groups who fight the extremist Sunni militants of al-Qaida in Iraq network.
Most of the councils are originally Sunni anti-U.S.
insurgent groups who turned their rifles against al-Qaida after rifts emerged
between Sunni Arab community and al-Qaida as the latter adopted a hardline Islam
and exercised indiscriminate killings against both Shiite and Sunni Muslim
communities.
Thursday's attacks followed a deadly car bombing near a popular restaurant in Baghdad's northwestern neighborhood of Shualaa on Wednesday evening, killing up to 40 people and wounding 83 others, the police said.
U.S. soldiers examine the scene of a suicide bombing in Kirkuk, Iraq, Thursday, May 21, 2009. (Xinhua/AFP Photo) Photo Gallery>>>
The powerful blast also destroyed at least 10 nearby
civilian cars and several nearby shops and eateries.
The latest bloodshed arouses fears of a return of
al-Qaida-style bomb attacks aimed at sparking sectarian strife that threatened
to bring the country to the edge of civil war two years ago.
At least 355 Iraqis were killed in April, making it
the bloodiest month this year.
