BAGHDAD, Sept. 9 (Xinhua) -- Two car bombs went off coordinately in a town near the city of Amara, some 365 km south of Baghdad, on Sunday, killing 18 people and wounding some 70, a local police source told Xinhua.
The attack occurred after midday when a car bomb went off at a marketplace near the shrine of Shiite Imam Ali al-Sharqi in the town that holds the name of the Imam, the source said on condition of anonymity.
Minutes later, another car bomb was detonated when Iraqi security forces and civilians gathered at the scene of the first blast to evacuate the victims, the source said.
The two blasts killed a total of 18 people and wounded 70 others, the source added.
The explosions are seen as part of a series of bomb attacks that hit the Iraqi cities on Sunday and killed 46 people and wounded more than 177 others.
Violence in Iraq has ebbed from its climax in 2006 and 2007, when sectarian conflicts pushed the country to the brink of a civil war, but tensions and attacks remain common across the country.
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