Iraq blasts hit Shi'ite areas
- 11 years ago
ROUGH CUT - NO REPORTER NARRATION
After sunset on Sunday (September 16) a packed car bomb exploded on a commercial street in Baghdad's eastern Shi'ite district of Al Mashtal, killing at least five people and wounding 17, police said.
At around the same time, a bomb in a street cafe in the Al Shuala Shi'ite neighbourhood of northern Baghdad killed two and wounded ten others.
A wave of car bombs and shootings across Iraq killed at least 36 people on Sunday, police sources said.
No group immediately claimed responsibility for the attacks, which appeared co-ordinated, but Sunni Islamist insurgents, including an al Qaeda affiliate, have been regaining momentum in recent months.
The civil war in neighbouring Syria has aggravated sectarian divisions in Iraq, fraying an uneasy government coalition of Shi'ite, Sunni and ethnic Kurdish factions.
About 800 Iraqis were killed in August, according to the United Nations, with more than a third of the deadly attack
After sunset on Sunday (September 16) a packed car bomb exploded on a commercial street in Baghdad's eastern Shi'ite district of Al Mashtal, killing at least five people and wounding 17, police said.
At around the same time, a bomb in a street cafe in the Al Shuala Shi'ite neighbourhood of northern Baghdad killed two and wounded ten others.
A wave of car bombs and shootings across Iraq killed at least 36 people on Sunday, police sources said.
No group immediately claimed responsibility for the attacks, which appeared co-ordinated, but Sunni Islamist insurgents, including an al Qaeda affiliate, have been regaining momentum in recent months.
The civil war in neighbouring Syria has aggravated sectarian divisions in Iraq, fraying an uneasy government coalition of Shi'ite, Sunni and ethnic Kurdish factions.
About 800 Iraqis were killed in August, according to the United Nations, with more than a third of the deadly attack