Car bombs, shootings kill 22, wound 80 in Iraq

PanARMENIAN.Net - At least 22 people were killed and more than 80 wounded Sunday, Jan 12, in several car explosions and shootings in Iraq, including an attack on an Iraqi army base, authorities said, according to CNN.

The war in Syria and sectarian tensions have played a part in the recent surge in violence in Iraq. The United Nations said 2013 was the deadliest year in Iraq since 2008, with almost 8,000 people killed, most of them civilians. Fears of all-out sectarian war have increased after violence that broke out in Anbar province in recent days.

On Sunday, the most fatalities occurred when men with small firearms attacked the army base in Abu Ghraib west of Baghdad, police said.

The attackers fled into a nearby area. Police said the Iraqi Army opened fire on the area and targeted it using helicopters. At least eight civilians were killed and 17 others wounded. It is not clear whether the casualties included any attackers.

Police officials in Salaheddin province north of Baghdad said at least four people were killed and 26 others wounded in a double bombing Sunday evening.

A parked car bomb, followed by a motorcycle with a cart attached to it, detonated in a busy part of the town of Tuz Khurmato, police said. The town is an ethnically mixed part of Salaheddin province and is home to Arabs, Turkmen and Kurds.

Three people were killed and 12 wounded when a car bomb exploded at a bus station in central Baghdad, police said. The parked car bomb targeted Iraqi army recruits who were returning home after submitting applications to join the army, police said.

The attack is the second in less than a week targeting recruits in the Iraqi capital city. On Thursday, a suicide bomber killed at least 13 people and injured 25 others at an army recruitment center in central Baghdad.

At least four people were killed and 14 others wounded Sunday when a car bomb detonated in a predominantly Shiite area in the Iraqi capital, police said.

The parked car detonated in Adan Square in the Kadhimiya district of northern Baghdad. The attack happened at noon, an hour when the area is usually crowded.

In the northern city of Mosul, a bomb targeted members of the Iraqi security forces, killing at least one officer and wounding six others.

Police said the bomb was attached to a vehicle belonging to the Facilities Protection Services.

Earlier, at least one person was killed and 11 others wounded in a car bombing south of Mosul. The parked car exploded near a sheep market in the Hamam al-Aleel area, police said.