Bombings kill 13 across Iraq
A series of bombings across Iraq targeting shoppers, security forces and a militia group has killed at least 13 people.
The deadliest attack took place in the town of Suwayrah, 40 kilometres (25 miles) south of Baghdad, where a car bomb ripped through a commercial area, killing five civilians and wounding 14, police said.
A suicide bomber attacked a police checkpoint in the town of Samarra, 95 kilometres (60 miles) north of the capital, killing three officers. The blast wounded four officers and five civilians.
A roadside bomb struck a patrol of a pro-government, anti-al Qaida Sunni militia, killing three and wounding seven in Tarmiyah, a Sunni town north of Baghdad. Militants consider members of the group, known as the Awakening Council, as traitors since they were formed by US forces during the height of Iraq’s insurgency.
A bomb also went off in Baghdad’s Palestine Street, killing two civilians and wounding eight.
A spike in attacks in Iraq has raised fears about a return of the sectarian bloodshed that pushed the country to the brink of civil war in 2006-2007. Violence has been on rise since April when the government launched a bloody crackdown on a Sunni protest camp. More than 5,500 people have been killed since.
