Deadly Car Bombs Rock Iraqi cities
At least 91 dead in string of explosions in Baghdad and other cities during Eid al-Fitr celebrations.
AlJazeera, 10 August 2013
Bomb damage in the city of Nasiriyah, where four people were killed [Reuters]
At least 91 people have been killed and hundreds injured in a series of car bombs that rocked Baghdad and other Iraqi cities amid Eid al-Fitr celebrations, the interior ministry said.
Al Jazeera's Imran Khan, reporting from the Iraqi capital, said 50 people had been killed in nine blasts in seven areas of the city on Saturday evening, with targets including cafes, markets and restaurants.
The attack sites were mainly Shia areas, although two were in predominantly Sunni neighbourhoods.
Khan said attacks in Shia neighbourhoods were likely to be the work of al-Qaeda in Iraq, which has been resurgent in recent months.
In other attacks on Saturday, at least eight people were killed and 47 injured when a car bomb exploded in the town of Tuz Khurmato, 170km north of Baghdad.
And at least five people were killed and 12 injured when a car bomb detonated amid a traffic jam on the central commercial street in the holy Shia city of Karbala, 110km south of Baghdad.
Four more were killed in two bomb blasts in Nasiriyah, 375km south of Baghdad.
The blasts are the latest in spiralling violence, with bloodshed at its worst since 2008 amid worries of a return to the all-out sectarian war that blighted Iraq years ago.
They come just weeks after brazen assaults on prisons near Baghdad by al-Qaeda linked groups that freed hundreds of fighters.
More than 800 people were killed in attacks during the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan, which ended this week.
The Interior Ministry has said the country faces an "open war" fuelled by Iraq's sectarian divisions and has attempted to boost security in Baghdad, closing roads and sending out frequent helicopter patrols.
Our correspondent said the withdrawal of American combat troops from Iraq 18 months ago has hit security efforts and emboldened Sunni fighters to step up attacks.
"People in the Iraqi security services will tell you ... that the Iraqi army is now on its own. They do not have the intelligence from the Americans that they had before. That has caused Sunni groups to go on the offensive.
"Then you have Shia groups taking revenge against them, in a classic tit-for-tat situation."