New wave of Iraq bomb attacks kills 50, wounds 144

PanARMENIAN.Net - A string of bomb attacks across Iraq killed at least 50 people on Monday, July 23 and wounded 144 more, police and hospital sources said, in one of the bloodiest days in the past weeks, according to Reuters.

Violence in Iraq has eased since the height of sectarian slaughter in 2006-2007, but insurgents still carry out deadly attacks, especially around the capital, and deadly car bombs on Sunday shattered a lull in violence in the lead-up to the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, which started on Saturday.

In Taji, 20 km (12 miles) north of Baghdad, six blasts, including a car bomb, exploded near a housing complex on Monday, killing 14 people and wounding 29, sources said. When police arrived at the scene, another blast killed 10 police officers.

Two car bombs struck near a government building in Sadr City, a poor Shi'ite neighborhood in Baghdad, and in the northern mainly Shi'ite area of Hussainiya, killing in total 16 people and wounding 73, police said.

In the northern oil city of Kirkuk, four car bombs killed four people and wounded 15 others. Explosions and gun attacks on security checkpoints in different parts of the restive eastern province of Diyala killed six people, including four soldiers and policemen, and wounded 30, police sources said.

Tensions have been high since the last U.S. troops left in December, with ongoing political crises between Iraq's main Shi'ite, Sunni and Kurdish factions.

On Sunday, car bombs in two towns south of Baghdad and in the Iraqi city of Najaf killed at least 20 people and wounded 80.

Last month at least 237 people were killed and 603 wounded in attacks, making it one of the bloodiest months since U.S. troops withdrew.