Baghdad: Bombings in and around Baghdad killed 14 people and wounded more than 45 on Thursday, authorities said, as a spike of violence made June Iraq’s bloodiest month in almost a half a year.
The attacks pushed the monthly death toll up to 200, the highest since January, when insurgents pounded the nation in the weeks following the US military’s withdrawal.
Thursday’s deadliest strike came around 9:30 am (local time) in the Shiite neighbourhood of Washash in western Baghdad, where eyewitnesses said a taxi exploded outside a local market. Eight people died and 26 were injured, police and hospital officials said.
Hadil Maytham and her two children were eating breakfast in their nearby house when they heard the explosion. ‘‘It shook the doors and the windows of the house,’’ said Maytham, 28. ‘‘Then we heard shootings, probably by police who usually shoot randomly after explosions.’’
Bombings generally are a hallmark of Sunni insurgents linked to al-Qaeda, and Shiites remain one of their main targets. Early on Thursday, a roadside bomb in a Shiite neighbourhood in southern Baghdad exploded as a police patrol was passing by, killing one person and wounding six. Two more attacks on Shiite enclaves in northwest Baghdad wounded five more people, police said.
Sunnis also are frequently attacked, especially government officials and security forces.
In the Sunni city of Taji, just north of Baghdad, two cars parked about 100 meters (yards) apart from each other exploded outside the office of the local mayor at dawn, police said. The mayor was not in his office at the time, but the blast killed five people and wounded 18, leaving craters in nearby homes. (AP)