Car bombs, shootings in Iraq cities claim 79 lives

Car bombs, shootings in Iraq cities claim 79 lives Sinan Salaheddin (AP) / 20 May 2013 BAGHDAD — A string of car bombs and shootings tore through Shia and Sunni areas of Iraq on Monday, killing at least 79 people, officials said. The attacks, some of which hit market places and crowded bus stops during the busy morning hours, are the latest in a recent spike in violence in Iraq that has targeted civilians and pushed the death toll over the past week to more than 200 people. The worst of Monday’s violence took place in Baghdad, where nine car bombs ripped through open-air markets and other areas, killing at least 33 people and wounding nearly 130, police officials said. Civilians gather at the scene of a car bomb attack in Kamaliyah neighborhood, a predominantly Shia area of eastern Baghdad, Iraq, on Monday, May 20, 2013.  –  AP The officials said the latest car bomb struck on Monday afternoon in a busy market in the Shaab neighborhood of Baghdad which killed 13 people. A police officer said 25 people wounded in the explosion. The surge in bloodshed has exasperated Iraqis, who have lived for years with the fear and uncertainty bred of random violence. “How long do we have to continue living like this, with all the lies from the government?” asked 23-year-old Baghdad resident Malik Ibrahim. “Whenever they say they have reached a solution, the bombings come back stronger than before.” “We’re fed up with them and we can’t tolerate this anymore,” he added. The city of Basra in southern Iraq was also hit on Monday, with two car bombs there — one outside a restaurant and another at the city’s main bus station — killing at least 13 and wounded 40, according to provincial police spokesman Col. Abdul Karim Al Zaidi and the head of city’s health directorate, Riadh Abdul Amir. There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attacks, but such large-scale bombings bear the hallmarks of Al Qaeda in Iraq. The violence also struck the city of Samarra, north of Baghdad, and the western province of Anbar, a Sunni stronghold. A parked car bomb in Samarra went off near a gathering of pro-government militia who were waiting outside a military base to receive salaries, killing three and wounding 13, while in Anbar gunmen ambushed two police patrols near the town of Haditha, killing eight policemen, police and army officials said. Also in Anbar, authorities found 13 dead bodies in a remote desert area, officials said. The bodies, which included eight policemen who were kidnapped by gunmen on Friday, had been killed with a gunshot to the head. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorised to talk to the media. Taylor Scott International