5 car bombs kill 26 in Shiite areas across Iraq

Baghdad, April 29: Five car bombs exploded in predominantly Shiite cities and districts in central and southern Iraq on Monday, killing 26 civilians and wounding dozens.


The blasts come amid a week-long spike in sectarian violence following clashes at a Sunni protest camp in the north of the country.

No one has claimed responsibility, but coordinated bombings in civilian areas are a favorite strategy used by al-Qaeda in Iraq.

Two parked car bombs went off simultaneously Monday morning in the city of Amarah near a gathering of construction workers and a market, killing 13 civilians and wounding 42, according to police.

Another police officer said a parked car bomb exploded near a restaurant in the city of Diwaniyah, killing eight civilians and wounding 25 others.

At least three cars were seen charred and twisted outside a two-story building with a blast-damaged facade. Shop owners and cleaners were brushing debris off the bloodstained pavement.

Amarah, some 320 kilometres southeast of Baghdad and Diwaniyah, 30 kilometres south of the capital, are heavily Shiite and normally comparatively peaceful.

Hours later, another parked car bomb went off in the Shiite city of Karbala, killing two civilians and wounding 12 others, police said.

Two early Islamic figures revered by Shiites are buried in the city, about 90 kilometres south of Baghdad.

A parked car bomb ripped through a Shiite neighborhood in the otherwise predominantly Sunni town of Mahmoudiya, about 30 kilometres south of Baghdad, killing three and wounding 16, another police said.

Sectarian violence has spiked since Tuesday, when security forces tried to make arrests at a Sunni Muslim protest camp in the northern city of Hawija.

The move set off a clash that killed 23 people, including three soldiers.