15 killed as car bomb explodes near Shi'ite mosque in Baghdad

PanARMENIAN.Net - A car bomb exploded near a Shi'ite mosque in the Iraqi capital on Wednesday, Sept 11 evening, killing at least 15 people, police and medical sources said, according to Reuters.

A further 27 were wounded in the blast, which took place in the northwestern Kasra district of Baghdad.

A wave of bombings in Iraq killed at least 14 civilians and wounded dozens on Tuesday, as insurgents try to exploit the country's political instability and undermine government efforts to maintain security.

The deadliest took place near the eastern city of Baqouba when three car bombs targeted outdoor markets, killing at least 10 civilians and wounding 34, a police officer said. Baqouba, a former al-Qaeda stronghold, is 60 kilometers (35 miles) northeast of Baghdad.

Another police officer said a bomb hidden inside a coffee shop in the town of Latifiyah killed four and wounded 14. The town is located about 30 kilometers (20 miles) south of Baghdad.

No one claimed immediate responsibility for the attacks. But coordinated car bombings and attacks on civilians and security forces are a favorite tactic of the Iraqi branch of al-Qaeda. It typically does not lay claim to attacks for several days, if at all.

The United Nations said about 800 Iraqis were killed in August. Most of the 804 killed were civilians, targeted in shootings and bombings mainly claimed by the Iraqi wing of al-Qaeda. More than 2,000 people were wounded.

The number of people who were killed last month was however lower than in July, when the UN reported that there were 1,057 victims, the highly monthly toll since 2008. Violence in Iraq was at its height in 2006-2007 when the number of people killed per month sometimes exceeded 3,000.

Nearly 5,000 civilians have been killed and 12,000 wounded since the beginning of 2013, the United Nations Assistance Mission for Iraq (UNAMI) said in a statement.

In August, Baghdad was once again the most affected governate, accounting for more than a third of those killed nationwide, the UN said.