Iraq bomb attacks kill 30 people

Car bomb attacks in Baghdad and the Iraqi province of Diyala, mostly claimed by the Islamic State jihadist group, have killed at least 30 people, police and medical sources said on Wednesday.

The deadliest of the attacks was in the Iraqi capital’s eastern district of Baghdad al-Jadida, a predominantly Shiite area that has been one of the most targeted by car bombs in recent years. 

At least 19 people were killed and 43 wounded when a car bomb exploded near a market there on Tuesday, a police colonel and hospital sources said. Another four people were killed and 10 wounded in a similar attack in the southern neighbourhood of Zafaraniya.

The Islamic State (IS) group claimed responsibility for both attacks, saying they had targeted Shiite militiamen, a claim it often makes even when most of the victims are civilians. A car bomb also struck a joint police and army checkpoint in Tarmiya, a town which lies on of the main highways north of Baghdad, police said.

At least three members of the security forces were killed and nine wounded. Also on Tuesday, a car bomb went off in Mandali, a town in the eastern province of Diyala which lies near the border with Iran, killing at least four people.