Bomb attacks kill 11 in Baghdad area

Three bomb blasts in and around Baghdad killed at least 11 people and wounded dozens on Monday in the latest wave of attacks to hit the Iraqi capital, police said.

The deadliest attack was a car bomb blast in a market area at around 9:00 am (0600 GMT) that killed at least seven people, according to a police colonel.

Hospital officials confirmed the death toll and said at least 20 people were also wounded.

In nearby Sadr City, a sprawling Shiite neighbourhood of north Baghdad which has been repeatedly targeted, at least two people were killed when an explosives-laden motorbike was blown up.

In Tarmiya, on the northern outskirts of Baghdad, a car bomb went off in a residential compound for employees of a neighbouring industrial complex, police said.

At least two people were killed and 10 wounded, according to figures confirmed by hospital sources and an interior ministry official.

There was no immediate claim for the blasts but the Islamic State group has claimed responsibility for nearly all such attacks in recent months.

The latest was a suicide attack on Sunday in the town of Moqdadiyah, in Diyala province, northeast of Baghdad.

IS released a statement naming the bomber, whose picture had been put up at checkpoints across Moqdadiyah after his mother tipped off the security forces but he was able to carry out the attack nonetheless.

Under heavy pressure on the battlefield, the jihadist organisation has struck back with bloody attacks in Baghdad.

The deadliest spate of bombings to hit the capital this year was earlier in May when three attacks on the same day, including a devastating blast in Sadr City, killed close to 100 people.

Iraqi forces thrust into the city of Fallujah on Monday marking a new and perilous urban phase in a week-old operation to retake the IS bastion just 50 kilometres (30 miles) west of Baghdad.

It is one of the last two major cities still held by the jihadists in Iraq, the other being Mosul, in the north.

Source :AFP