MarketNeutral
23rd April 2010, 09:07 AM
At least 60 people have been killed and scores more wounded in a series of attacks in the Iraqi capital, Baghdad, police say.
Two car bombs exploded at a market in Sadr City killing at least 39 people and injuring 56 others, while three separate car bombs and an improvised device killed at least 11 in the west and east of Baghdad, officials said on Friday.
Mike Hanna, Al Jazeera's correspondent in the capital, said four of the attacks were in Shia areas and two of them in Sunni neighbourhoods.
"At this time it would appear that the attacks are being targeted at the civilian population in general, rather than any sectarian basis," Hanna said.
He said that the political instability following Iraq's inconclusive election seemed to have sparked a wave of attacks.
"Iraq had been hoping to celebrate its democratic elections, but at the moment everybody is deeply concerned about this period of instability which it appears is being filled by violent acts," he said.
Earlier on Friday seven people were killed and 18 others wounded after six roadside bombs exploded in Iraq's western Anbar province.
The bombs went off near the houses of a judge and police officers in the town of Khalidiya, about 83km west of Baghdad, the capital.
"Four homes were hit by homemade bombs and C4 [plastic explosive]," Lieutenant Khoder Ahmed al-Alwani, a police officer, said.
Judge Fadhel Mahmud Saleh escaped unhurt from the explosion at his house, but two of his sons were wounded.
"This is the second assassination attempt against me this month. They put a sticky bomb on my car but it was discovered," he told an AFP news agency correspondent at the scene.
http://english.aljazeera.net/news/middleeast/2010/04/2010423112930107606.html
Two car bombs exploded at a market in Sadr City killing at least 39 people and injuring 56 others, while three separate car bombs and an improvised device killed at least 11 in the west and east of Baghdad, officials said on Friday.
Mike Hanna, Al Jazeera's correspondent in the capital, said four of the attacks were in Shia areas and two of them in Sunni neighbourhoods.
"At this time it would appear that the attacks are being targeted at the civilian population in general, rather than any sectarian basis," Hanna said.
He said that the political instability following Iraq's inconclusive election seemed to have sparked a wave of attacks.
"Iraq had been hoping to celebrate its democratic elections, but at the moment everybody is deeply concerned about this period of instability which it appears is being filled by violent acts," he said.
Earlier on Friday seven people were killed and 18 others wounded after six roadside bombs exploded in Iraq's western Anbar province.
The bombs went off near the houses of a judge and police officers in the town of Khalidiya, about 83km west of Baghdad, the capital.
"Four homes were hit by homemade bombs and C4 [plastic explosive]," Lieutenant Khoder Ahmed al-Alwani, a police officer, said.
Judge Fadhel Mahmud Saleh escaped unhurt from the explosion at his house, but two of his sons were wounded.
"This is the second assassination attempt against me this month. They put a sticky bomb on my car but it was discovered," he told an AFP news agency correspondent at the scene.
http://english.aljazeera.net/news/middleeast/2010/04/2010423112930107606.html