Spate of Attacks Across Iraq on Anniversary of US Invasion
Near-simultaneous attacks in several Iraqi cities have killed at least 30 people on the anniversary of the US-led invasion of the country, just days before Baghdad hosts a landmark Arab summit.
Officials said that more than 130 people were wounded in the spate of gun and bomb attacks that rocked towns and cities spanning the northern oil-rich hub of Kirkuk and the southern shrine city of Karbala.
A car bomb also detonated outside Iraq’s foreign ministry. It was not immediately clear how many, if any, casualties, were caused.
Tuesday’s deadliest attack occurred in Karbala, where two roadside blasts at the entrance to the city killed 13 people and wounded 48, according to provincial health spokesman Jamal Mehdi.
Police spokesman Major Alaa Abbas of Karbala, which is south of Baghdad and home to the shrines of revered Shiite clerics Imam Hussein and Imam Abbas, confirmed the toll.
A car bomb targeting a police office in the ethnically-mixed city of Kirkuk, meanwhile, killed nine policemen and wounded 42 people, the vast majority of them police, according to Dr Mohammed Abdullah at the city’s hospital.
“We have also received parts of bodies, but we do not know who they belong to,” Abdullah said.