Bombs kill 86 in Baghdad as sectarian violence spreads

Baghdad: A series of car bombings
and other attacks across Baghdad
on Wednesday killed 86 people and
wounded 263, police and medical
sources said, extending the worst
wave of sectarian bloodshed in Iraq
for at least five years.
It was not immediately clear who
carried out the attacks, which
appeared coordinated, but Sunni
Muslim insurgents including the al
Qaeda-affiliated Islamic State of
Iraq have significantly stepped up
bombings this year.
More than two years of civil war in
neighbouring Syria have aggravated
deep-rooted sectarian divisions in
Iraq, fraying the country's uneasy
coalition of Shi'ite Muslim, Sunni
Muslim and Kurdish factions.
In Sadr City, an impoverished Shi'ite
district in Baghdad's northeast, two
car bombs killed seven people. A
restaurant owner said he saw an
attacker just before one of the
explosions.
"A man parked his car in front of the
restaurant. He got breakfast and
drank his tea. (Then) I heard a huge
explosion when I was inside the
kitchen," the owner, who requested
anonymity, told Reuters.
"When I went outside, I saw his car
completely destroyed and he had
disappeared. Many people were
hurt."
Car bombs hit south, north and
western Baghdad in a cluster of
attacks early in the day and late in
the evening which targeted both
Shi'ite and Sunni areas of the
capital.
The Interior Ministry described the
attacks as "terrorist explosions" but
said the number of people killed was
only 20, with 213 wounded. The
Shi'ite-led Baghdad government has
said that media reports exaggerate
attacks in Iraq and that security
forces have stopped many
attempted bombings.
However, Wednesday's violence was
worst since August 10, when nearly
80 people were killed during a
religious holiday.
ONE THOUSAND DIED IN JULY
More than 1,000 Iraqis were killed in
July, the highest monthly death toll
since 2008, according to the United
Nations.
The renewed violence, 18 months
after US troops withdrew from Iraq,
has stirred anxiety about a relapse
towards the widespread sectarian
slaughter of 2006-07.
In other attacks on Wednesday,
gunmen killed six members of al-
Sahwa - former Sunni insurgents
who rebelled against al Qaeda - in
an ambush on a checkpoint in
Latifiya, a suburb 40 km (25 miles)
south of Baghdad.
Gunmen also stormed a Shi'ite
home in the same area, killing six
family members, police and medical
sources said.
In Kadhimiya, a neighbourhood in
northwestern Baghdad, two
roadside bombs and one car bomb
killed five people and wounded
nearly 30, the sources said.
Four soldiers were killed and five
were wounded in Madaen, southeast
of Baghdad, by a roadside bomb
which targeted an Iraqi army patrol,
police and medics said.
After years of reduced violence, the
intensity of attacks has dramatically
risen since the start of 2013.