Extra police and soldiers as well
as security force vehicles were deployed on Tuesday at marketplaces in
neighborhoods of
Baghdad hit by the violence, witnesses said.
In the deadliest incidents -- a string of roadside bombs and a car bomb
followed by a suicide attack targeting emergency responders in the town
of
Taji, just north of Baghdad -- at least 42 people were killed and 40
wounded, medical officials said.
“I was sleeping, and my parents lifted me out of bed,” recalled
11-year-old Mohammed, whose family’s home in Taji was leveled by the
blast.
“They were shouting, ‘Get up quickly! Help your younger brothers! There is a car bomb!’”
“It felt like it was just a few moments later when it exploded, and
there was a big ball of fire, and the wreckage was falling over our
heads.”
In Baghdad a car bomb outside a government office responsible for
producing identity papers in the Shiite bastion of Sadr City killed at
least 12 people and wounded 33 others, security and medical officials
said.
Explosions elsewhere in Baghdad killed at least six people and wounded
51 others, including a car bomb outside a cafe in the capital's Ur
neighborhood at around 11:00 pm (2000 GMT) that left at least two dead
and 24 wounded, officials said.
A car bomb in the town of Tarmiyah, just north of the capital, also killed one and hurt nine.
Elsewhere in Iraq, shootings and bomb blasts in Diyala, Salaheddin,
Kirkuk, Anbar and Diwaniyah provinces left 52 people dead and more than
100 wounded.
U.S. State department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland told reporters Washington strongly condemned the attacks.
“The targeting of innocents is always cowardly,” she said. “It’s particularly reprehensible during this holy month of Ramadan.”
The violence also drew condemnation from the United Nations special
envoy to Iraq, the country’s parliament speaker, as well as France,
Canada and neighboring Iran.
There was no immediate claim of responsibility for Monday’s attacks, but
al-Qaeda’s front group in Iraq has warned in recent days it would seek
to retake territory in the country.
The Islamic State of Iraq said in an audio message posted online that it
would begin targeting judges and prosecutors, and appealed for the help
of Sunni tribes in its quest to recapture territory it once held.
Monday’s attacks came a day after a spate of bombings across the country
killed at least 17 people and wounded nearly 100. Monday’s toll was the
highest since December 8, 2009, when 127 people were killed.
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