Iraq Blasts Kill 29, Wound 68

Iraq Blasts Kill 29, Wound 68

Four bombs in mainly Shi'ite Muslim areas in Baghdad killed at least 29 people and wounded dozens of others on Thursday, police and hospital sources said.

Nearly nine years after the U.S.-led invasion that ousted Saddam Hussein, Iraq is still plagued by a deadly Sunni Muslim insurgency and Shi'ite militias

From the Kadhimiya blasts killed16 and 36 wounded and said 13 were killed and 32 others wounded in the Sadr City attacks, totaling 29 died and 68 injured according to Baghdad's health statistics department

"We are in a battlefield with the terrorists ... and with the enemies of the political process, so we do not consider these (explosions) as a surprise for us or something strange. We are used to such (insurgent) operations," said Baghdad operations centre spokesman Qassim al-Moussawi.

There were blood stains around the site of the motorcycle bomb attack and that tarmac on the road had been ripped up by the explosion, said a Reuters reporter. Building tools and shoes were scattered across the site.

The second set of explosions, two car bombs, occurred in Baghdad's northwestern Kadhimiya district and killed at least 15 people and wounded 32.

"People started to flee from the explosions and others ran towards them (to look for relatives). The scene was like a play, with people crying and screaming and falling," Ahmed Maati, a policeman inKadhimiya, told Reuters.

Posted by James Fried on Friday January 06 2012, 11:20 AM EDT. Ref: Reuters. All trademarks acknowledged. Filed under Featured News, World. Comments and Trackbacks closed. Follow responses: RSS 2.0