7 killed in Baghdad car bomb

Seven people were killed and 20 more injured on Tuesday when a car bomb exploded in a marketplace in eastern Baghdad. A source in Iraq’s Interior Ministry told Arabstoday: "A car bomb parked in the middle of a market exploded at noon on Tuesday in the Shiite-majority neighbourhood of Shula in Baghdad. The blast killed seven people. 20 others sustained varying degrees of injuries and a number of cars and shops were also damaged." Ambulances rushed to the scene as wounded civilians were taken to al-Kadimiyah hospital for treatment. 18 people, including eight soldiers, were also killed in Baghdad earlier on Tuesday morning following a suicide car bomb attack at an army checkpoint the city’s southern district of al-Mahmoudiya. Two employees at the Ministry of Science and Technology also sustained gunshot wounds in eastern Baghdad’s al-Mashtal neighbourhoud. A Ministry of Petroleum employee survived an assassination attempt after an adhesive explosive device was placed inside his car in al-Iskan. Iraqi politicians are meanwhile locked in dispute, as blocs trade accusations over the government’s handling of national demonstrations which are being increasingly mired by sectarian violence. Al-Iraqiya bloc leader Hamid al-Mutlaq has accused Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki of "dragging his feet" over meeting demonstrators' demands, demanding the National Iraqi Alliance [NIA] and the Rule of Law Coalition select a "replacement" administration. In a press conference on Tuesday, al-Mutlaq said al-Maliki "does not want to meet the public's demands for fear that state institutions will collapse." He also expressed his conviction that "some laws," including the controversial Accountability and Justice law, "need to be changed."   The al-Iraqiya list, along with demonstrations across the country’s western governorates, accuse al-Maliki of double standards in applying the Accountability and Justice law, allegedly incarcerating minor public officials while protecting his advisers and senior officers who held high-up posts in Saddam Hussein’s Ba’ath Party. The Rule of Law Coalition's Hussein al-Sunaid, who is close to al-Maliki and believed to be among his top negotiators, said: "Regardless of pressure, we will not vote for a law that gives terrorists free reign to kills Iraqis once again.” Speaking exclusively to Arabstoday, he said: "If demonstration is a right granted by the constitution, then making illegitimate demands is a breach of that right." Al-Sunaid claimed the “silent plurality of the Iraqi people” would have its say on “illegitimate demands” in the future. But the hundreds of thousands of protesters sweeping Iraq’s west are not budging. In central and southern governorates, pro-government demonstrations were condemned by Shiite parties, particularly the Sadrist Movement and the Iraqi National Congress, who described the protests as "paid for." Protesters also accuse al-Maliki of exploiting state institutions. The Iraqi governorates of Anbar, Saladdin, Nineveh and Kirkuk continue to experience thousands-strong demonstrations, which began on December 21, against al-Maliki’s leadership and government.