More than 60 dead as Iraqis mark end to Ramadan
12 Aug 2013 9:46 PM GMT
Car bombs ripped through Baghdad cafes and markets while blasts and shootings struck elsewhere killing 61 people as Iraq marked the end of its deadliest Ramadan holy month in years.
The attacks late on Saturday were the latest in spiralling violence which authorities have failed to stem, with the worst bloodshed in five years raising worries of a return to the all-out Sunni-Shiite sectarian conflict that killed tens of thousands in past years. Saturday’s violence followed major security operations against militants that officials hailed as having resulted in the killing and capture of many.
Overall, 16 car bombs and a series of shootings and other blasts killed at least 61 people and wounded nearly 300 across the country yesterday, security and medical officials said.
A spate of vehicles rigged with explosives were detonated in eight different neighbourhoods of Baghdad, in apparently coordinated strikes.
The blasts hit public markets, cafes, and restaurants, killing 37 people overall, while violence earlier yesterday killed two others in the capital, according to security and medical officials
At Baghdad’s Al-Kindi hospital, medics treated a man, apparently a soldier, whose face, chest and arms were covered in blood.
Medics sprinted into the hospital pushing people on stretchers, one of them a blanket-swathed man whose eyes were closed. Another man ran behind the stretcher, weeping as it was wheeled into the hospital.
Outside, long lines of cars inched along Baghdad roads, held up by increased security measures that came too late for the dozens of victims.
The attacks late on Saturday were the latest in spiralling violence which authorities have failed to stem, with the worst bloodshed in five years raising worries of a return to the all-out Sunni-Shiite sectarian conflict that killed tens of thousands in past years. Saturday’s violence followed major security operations against militants that officials hailed as having resulted in the killing and capture of many.
Overall, 16 car bombs and a series of shootings and other blasts killed at least 61 people and wounded nearly 300 across the country yesterday, security and medical officials said.
A spate of vehicles rigged with explosives were detonated in eight different neighbourhoods of Baghdad, in apparently coordinated strikes.
The blasts hit public markets, cafes, and restaurants, killing 37 people overall, while violence earlier yesterday killed two others in the capital, according to security and medical officials
At Baghdad’s Al-Kindi hospital, medics treated a man, apparently a soldier, whose face, chest and arms were covered in blood.
Medics sprinted into the hospital pushing people on stretchers, one of them a blanket-swathed man whose eyes were closed. Another man ran behind the stretcher, weeping as it was wheeled into the hospital.
Outside, long lines of cars inched along Baghdad roads, held up by increased security measures that came too late for the dozens of victims.
Next Story
