63 killed in brutal Iraq post election attacks by militants tolls to 4000

Baghdad,29 May-2014(AFP): Attacks across Iraq, including a spate of car bombs in Baghdad and the northern city of Mosul, killed 63 people today in the bloodiest violence to hit Iraq since April elections.

63 killed in brutal Iraq post election attacks by militants tolls to 4000

Representational Image by Getty Images

The worst of the blasts went off during the evening and left dozens of people wounded, fuelling fears a protracted surge in violence is pushing Iraq back into the brutal communal conflict that left tens of thousands dead in 2006 and 2007.

The bloodletting comes as political leaders jostle to build alliances and form a government, with Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki in the driver’s seat in his bid for re-election but still short of an overall majority in parliament.

Separate deadly sets of car bombs hit both the Iraqi capital and Mosul, in the north, in the evening.

In Baghdad’s deadliest attack, a suicide car bomb exploded in the mainly Shiite neighbourhood of Kadhimiyah in north Baghdad, killing at least 16 people and wounding 50, security and medical officials said, speaking on condition of anonymity. Three other car bombs went off in the Amin, Sadr City and Jihad districts, killing a dozen more people.

The blasts were the latest in a trend of militants setting off vehicles rigged with explosives during the evening, when Baghdad’s residents visit markets, restaurants and cafes. Previously, such attacks had typically been timed to go off during morning rush hour.

Elsewhere in and around the capital, gun attacks and explosions killed three people, officials said.

In Mosul, one of the most violent areas of the country, twin car bombs set off by suicide attackers killed 21 people, including 14 soldiers and policemen, in the west of the city.

Also in Nineveh province, of which Mosul is the capital, two other attacks left two people dead.

No group immediately claimed responsibility, but Sunni militants including those linked to the jihadist Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant often set off coordinated bombings across Baghdad and other major cities, ostensibly in a bid to sow instability.

Also in north Iraq, a series of 11 bombings in the ethnically mixed town of Tuz Khurmatu killed five people, four of them members of the same family, and wounded 11. The blasts targeted homes belonging to ethnic Turkmen.