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Car bombs hit Baghdad's Sadr City | Car bombs hit Baghdad's Sadr City |
(about 1 hour later) | |
At least 10 people have been killed and 33 wounded in two separate car bomb attacks in an eastern Shia district of the Iraqi capital, Baghdad, police say. | |
The first bomb targeted day labourers waiting for jobs in Sadr City. Police said eight were killed and 21 wounded. | |
Minutes later, a car exploded at a roundabout 3km (1.9 miles) away, killing two people and injuring 11. | |
There has been a rise in attacks in Iraq since US troops left last month, leaving as many as 170 people dead. | |
The violence has corresponded with a marked deterioration in Iraq's fragile political process, with the country's most prominent Sunni Arab politician being sought by the authorities on terrorism charges. | |
Vice-President Tariq al-Hashemi has denied the accusations against him and fled to the Kurdish-controlled region of northern Iraq. | |
The biggest bloc in parliament, al-Iraqiyya, has accused Prime Minister Nouri Maliki, a Shia, of using the law to consolidate his grip on power, and is boycotting parliament and cabinet sessions in protest. | |
Al-Iraqiyya's leader, Iyad Allawi, said last week Iraq needed a new prime minister or elections to prevent it disintegrating along sectarian lines. | |
Monday's bombings appeared to once again target the majority Shia community, which has borne the brunt of attacks in the past month. | |
One of the day labourers who had been waiting for work in Sadr City when the first bomb exploded said it was "like a black storm". | |
"I felt myself thrown on the ground," Ahmed Ali told to the Reuters news agency from a bed inside the local hospital. "I fainted for a while then I woke up and hurried to one of the cars to take me to the hospital." | |
The target of the second attack was not clear, with some reports saying the car bomb exploded near a pastry shop and others near people queuing to buy heating fuel. | |
Officials also said a roadside bomb later exploded on the Muthanna airport road in central Baghdad, wounding at least six people. |