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Iraq unrest: Car bomb blasts kill 17 in Baghdad area | |
(about 3 hours later) | |
Car bomb attacks targeting Iraqi security forces and Shia Muslim pilgrims have killed at least 17 people in and around the capital, 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. | |
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. |
Bus hit | |
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. | |
The first bomb went off in Taji at 07:15 (04:15 GMT), police were quoted as saying by the Associated Press news agency. | |
In Madain, a car bomb exploded at around 10:30, next to a bus carrying Iranian pilgrims. | |
Three Iraqis were killed and seven Iranians are among the injured, officials told AP. | |
Police and Shia civilians were killed or injured in other attacks on Sunday. | |
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. |