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Iraq hit by deadly car bomb explosions Iraq unrest: Car bomb blasts kill 17 in Baghdad area
(about 3 hours later)
A series of car bomb explosions have struck Iraq, officials say, killing at least nine people. Car bomb attacks targeting Iraqi security forces and Shia Muslim pilgrims have killed at least 17 people in and around the capital, Baghdad.
The most deadly attack was reported in the town of Taji, north of Baghdad. Worst hit was Taji, a mainly Sunni town north of the capital, where three car bombs went off within minutes of each other, killing at least six people.
Eight people were killed and at least 22 wounded there in three car bomb attacks, police said. In the southern town of Madain, a bomb exploded near a Shia shrine.
Police say a number of Iranian pilgrims were among the injured.
Although violence has decreased in Iraq since its peak in 2006 and 2007, attacks escalated again after the withdrawal of US troops from the country at the end of last year.Although violence has decreased in Iraq since its peak in 2006 and 2007, attacks escalated again after the withdrawal of US troops from the country at the end of last year.
Some reports said the parked car bomb blasts in Taji were near Shia Muslim homes in the mainly Sunni town, which is 20km (12 miles) north of Baghdad. Bus hit
But others said the blasts targeted police checkpoints. Some reports say the parked car bomb blasts in Taji were near Shia Muslim homes in the town, which is 20km (12 miles) north of Baghdad. Others say the blasts targeted police checkpoints.
Police told Associated Press one person was also killed by a bomb in the north-western Shia neighbourhood of the capital, Baghdad. The first bomb went off in Taji at 07:15 (04:15 GMT), police were quoted as saying by the Associated Press news agency.
Iraq has suffered a number of deadly attacks recently. In Madain, a car bomb exploded at around 10:30, next to a bus carrying Iranian pilgrims.
On 17 September, at least seven people were killed in a suicide car bomb attack near the heavily-guarded International Zone in Baghdad. Three Iraqis were killed and seven Iranians are among the injured, officials told AP.
A week earlier, dozens of people died in a wave of attacks across the country. Police and Shia civilians were killed or injured in other attacks on Sunday.
On 13 June, a wave of bombings killed 84 people and injured nearly 300 in the deadliest day in the country since US troops withdrew. A resident of the Ammil district in Baghdad accused fugitive Vice-President Tariq al-Hashemi and pro-Sunni media organisations of inflaming passions against Iraq's Shia majority.
"They are the terrorists," he told Reuters news agency. "They want to terminate the Shia. They want to see all the Shia gone."
Hashemi was recently sentenced to death in absentia after an Iraqi court found him guilty of running death squads.