11 killed in Iraqi car bomb attack

PanARMENIAN.Net - A bomb in a car parked near a crowded restaurant in a Shi'ite neighbourhood of the Iraqi capital Baghdad killed at least 11 people on Thursday, February 28 police sources said, according to Reuters.

No one immediately claimed responsibility for the attack, but Sunni Muslim insurgents are redoubling their efforts to undermine the Shi'ite-led government and spark deeper intercommunal fighting.

A further 32 people were wounded in the blast, which occurred in Baghdad's southern Shula district.

Violence in Iraq is increasing as Sunni opposition swells against Shi'ite Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki, whose power-sharing government of Shi'ites, Sunnis and ethnic Kurds has been largely paralyzed since U.S. troops withdrew in December 2011.

Thousands of Sunni Muslim protesters have rallied daily since late December in western provinces against the perceived marginalization of their sect, a minority in Iraq, and have demanded that Maliki quit.

Iraqi Shi'ite leaders fear that the war in neighboring Syria - where Sunni rebels are fighting to oust President Bashar al-Assad, an ally of Shi'ite Iran - could further destabilize Iraq's delicate sectarian and ethnic balance.