BAGHDAD, July 29 (Xinhua) -- A wave of 17 car bombs on Monday struck the Iraqi capital of Baghdad and other cities, killing 42 people and wounding some 201 others, police said.
Up to 12 car bombs ripped through Baghdad during the morning rush hours mainly targeted the predominantly Shiite districts of Sadr city, killing at least 23 people and wounding 132 others, an Interior Ministry source told Xinhua on condition of anonymity.
The blasts prompted the Iraqi security forces to intensify security measures at dozens of checkpoints on main streets across the capital, causing severe traffic jam as thousands of civilian cars were waiting for crossing the points.
Meanwhile, two car bombs and a roadside bomb struck a crowded parking lot in the city of Kut, some 170 km southeast of Baghdad, killing up to eight people and wounding some 40, a local police source told Xinhua.
Two more car bombs exploded the city of Simawa, some 270 km south of Baghdad, killing five people and wounding 21, a local police source anonymously told Xinhua.
In the southern oil hub of Basra, a car bomb went off in northern the city, some 550 km south of Baghdad, killing two people and wounding eight others, a local police source said.
In Iraq's Salahudin province, a roadside bomb exploded near the convoy of Lieutenant Colonel Hammad al-Dulaimi, a provincial police commando chief, near the city of Baiji, some 220 km north of Baghdad, destroying the car and killing the police chief, his aide and two bodyguards aboard, a provincial police source told Xinhua.
No group has so far claimed responsibility for the attack, but the al-Qaida front in Iraq, in most cases, was responsible for such violent attacks in the country.
Iraq is witnessing its worst eruption of violence in five years, raising fears that the latest bloodshed is bringing the country back to a full-blown civil conflict that peaked in 2006 and 2007, when the monthly death toll sometimes exceeded 3,000.
TIKRIT, Iraq, July 28 (Xinhua) -- Eight Kurdish security members were killed and four others wounded on Sunday in a suicide car bomb attack in Iraq's northern Salahudin province, a provincial police source said.
A suicide bomber drove his explosive-laden car into a checkpoint manned by Kurdish security force, locally known as Asayish, in the volatile city of Tuz-Khurmato, some 90 km east of the provincial capital city of Tikrit, the source told Xinhua on condition of anonymity. Full story
BAGHDAD, July 25 (Xinhua) -- At least 17 people were killed and 40 wounded in separate bombings and shootings in northern and central Iraq on Thursday, police said.
At least six people were killed and 18 wounded when a bomb ripped through a popular coffee shop in the town of Madain, some 30 km southeast of the Iraqi capital of Baghdad, an Interior Ministry source told Xinhua on condition of anonymity. Full story
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