Baghdad blasts kill more than 30 over Eid holiday

Sat, Oct 27 15:26 PM EDT 1 of 2 BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Bombings on Shi'ite neighborhoods in Baghdad and a blast on an Iranian pilgrim bus killed more than 30 people on Saturday, marring Iraqi celebrations of the second day of the Islamic Eid al Adha religious festival. Violence in Iraq has eased sharply, but Sunni Islamist insurgents and al Qaeda's Iraq wing often target Shi'ites in an attempt to stir up the kind of sectarian tensions that dragged the country close to civil war in 2006-2007. Two car bombs exploded on Saturday, one ripping into a restaurant in the Shi'ite stronghold of Sadr City and killing at least 23 people, police and hospital sources said. "I was just selling fruit and we were surprised by a huge explosion on the other side of the street," Hassan Falih Shami, a grocery stall owner near the site of the blast. "You can see pools of blood, the shoes and pieces of clothing." Hours earlier, a roadside bomb planted near an open-air market killed seven people, including three children at a playground. Another blast killed six people when it hit a bus carrying Iranian pilgrims to a Baghdad shrine, police and hospital officials said. Police said the attack on the Iranian pilgrims came from a bomb that had been attached to their bus. It exploded around 300 meters (yards) from a police checkpoint, sending the bus out of control before it flipped over on its side. Insurgents have carried out at least one major attack a month since the last U.S. troops left in December. Iraqi officials worry Syria's crisis is bolstering Iraqi insurgents. The monthly death toll from attacks in Iraq doubled in September to 365, the highest number of casualties in two years, including a series of bombings targeting Shi'ite neighborhoods that killed more than 100 people. Security officials had said they believe insurgents would try to carry out a large attack during the religious holiday, which started on Friday. Car bombs exploded and mortars landed around the Shi'ite neighborhood of Shula, northwestern Baghdad, on Tuesday killing eight people and wounded 28, and another person was killed by a mortar round in Kadhimiya area. (Reporting by Raheem Salman; Writing by Patrick Markey; Editing by Jon Hemming) =============== Death toll from suicide bombing near Baghdad rises to 27: police Tue, Nov 06 06:20 AM EST BAGHDAD (Reuters) - A suicide bomber rammed his explosive-filled car into soldiers outside an army base near Baghdad on Tuesday, killing 31 people and injuring tens more in one of the worst attacks this year on the country's military. Bombings and attacks have eased sharply since the height of Iraq's sectarian strife in 2006-2007, but al Qaeda's local affiliate and other Sunni Islamist insurgents often target local security forces and Shi'ite Muslims to stoke tensions. The bomber drove his car into crowds of troops and recruits outside the base in Taji, 20 km (12 miles) north of the Iraqi capital, leaving body parts and burned vehicles scattered in the streets outside, police and hospital officials said. At least 31 people were killed, mostly soldiers, and another 50 people were wounded in the blast, a hospital source said. "There were army trainees leaving the base and small buses were waiting for them when the explosion took place," said Ahmed Khalef, a policeman working nearby. "We immediately started to rescue the wounded. You could smell of charred bodies." Insurgents in Iraq have carried out at least one major attack a month since U.S. troops withdrew from the country in December last year. Now Iraqi officials worry Islamists may be gaining a moral and financial boost from the Syrian crisis. Bombings at the end of October killed more than 40 people, including some in blasts in Shi'ite neighborhoods in Baghdad and an attack on an Iranian pilgrim bus during the Islamic Eid al Adha festival. Sunni Islamists and al Qaeda's affiliate, Islamic State of Iraq, often hit Shi'ite pilgrims and religious sites in an attempt to drive the country back to widespread sectarian killing. They target security forces to try to weaken the government of Shi'ite Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki. (Reporting by Baghdad newsroom; writing Patrick Markey) ========== Car bomb blasts kill at least 14 across Iraq: sources Wed, Nov 14 03:58 AM EST 1 of 5 BAGHDAD (Reuters) - A series of car bombs killed at least 14 people across Iraq early on Wednesday, the eve of a Muslim festival to mark the start of the Islamic year, police and hospital sources said. The holy month of Muharram is of special significance to Shi'ite Muslims, who are a prime target of al Qaeda's Iraqi affiliate and other Sunni Islamist insurgents seeking to re-ignite the kind of sectarian violence that gripped the country in 2006-2007. The deadliest explosion took place in the disputed and ethnically-mixed city of Kirkuk, 250 km (155 miles) north of the capital Baghdad, where four bombs planted in parked cars went off simultaneously, killing nine people and wounding 30, police said. In the southern city of Hilla, 100 km (62 miles) south of Baghdad, four people were killed in a car bomb blast, police and hospital sources said. "A car bomb exploded near a secondary school for girls and a crowded poultry market, leaving four dead, including innocent students. It's a real vicious terrorist act," said Hamza Kadhim, a local official in Hilla. Another car bomb targeting an Interior Ministry official in central Baghdad killed one passer-by and wounded nine others, including three policemen, hospital and police sources said. (Reporting by Kareem Raheem in Baghdad, Ali al-Rubaie in Hilla and Mustafa Mahmoud in Kirkuk; Writing by Isabel Coles; Editing by Jon Boyle) =======