Nine car bombs killed at least 30 people yesterday in Shiite-majority areas of Baghdad Province, while another targeting soldiers lining up at a bank in Mosul left 12 dead, officials said.
At least five other people were killed in other attacks, the latest in a wave of bloodshed that has pushed this month’s death toll from violence across Iraq past 630.
The Baghdad blasts, which hit eight different areas in and around the Iraqi capital, also wounded more than 90 people, the security and medical officials said.
One of the worst-hit neighborhoods was Shaab in north Baghdad, where two car bombs exploded in a commercial area, killing at least five people and wounding at least 17.
Blasts also struck the areas of Bayaa, Baladiyat, Mashtal, Hurriyah and Dura in Baghdad, and Saba al-Bur near the capital.
In the northern city of Mosul, a car bomb attack targeting soldiers waiting outside a bank to collect their wages killed at least 12 people yesterday, military and medical officials said.
Civilians were believed to be among those killed in the attack, which occurred in the east of the city, also leaving about 20 people wounded.
Later unknown assailants shot dead two soldiers in a car in the same area, army officials and doctors said.
The attacks came after a car bomb exploded near an army checkpoint in Mosul, killing a woman and wounding eight people.
And gunmen shot dead two Shiite civilians in the Muqdadiyah area, northeast of the city of Baqubah.
Sunni militants often carry out attacks targeting members of Iraq’s Shiite majority, whom they consider apostates.
Violence in Iraq has reached a level not seen since 2008, when the country was just emerging from a brutal sectarian conflict.
The surge in bloodshed this year, which has included sectarian attacks, has raised fears Iraq may relapse into the intense Sunni-Shiite conflict that peaked in 2006 and 2007 and killed tens of thousands.
Analysts say the situation has been worsened by the Shiite-led government’s failure to address the Sunni Arab minority’s grievances — including political exclusion and alleged abuses by security forces.
The level of violence spiked after security forces stormed a Sunni protest camp in northern Iraq in April, sparking clashes in which dozens died.
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