At least 15 killed in Iraq car bomb

A car bomb that went off near two government offices in central Baghdad has killed at least 15 people and injured more than 50, an Iraqi official said. Another official put the number at of deaths at 18. Two police officials said the explosives-rigged car was parked near an office for Shiite Muslim religious affairs and the city’s health department in the Bab al-Muadham area, The Associated Press reported. Monday’s explosion damaged nearby buildings and cars. It occurred at about 11am. A doctor in a nearby hospital confirmed the casualty figures. All officials spoke on condition of anonymity as they were not authorised to release information. Monday’s attack comes amid a dispute between Iraq’s Shiite and Sunni religious endowments over control of a landmark shrine north of Baghdad, according to AFP. Shiite authorities had sought to take over management of the al-Askari shrine in Samarra, north of Baghdad and the site of an al-Qaeda suicide attack in February 2006 that ignited the worst of Iraq’s sectarian conflict. The latest violence comes less than a week after a spate of bombings in Baghdad left 17 dead on May 31, shattering a relative calm in the Iraqi capital.