At least 16 killed in spate of Iraq car bombs: officials

BAGHDAD – Agence France-Presse

This file photo shows an Iraqi policeman and civilians inspect the site of a car bomb attack in Huriya district, northern Baghdad, Iraq. EPA Photo

A series of car bombs in and around Baghdad killed at least 16 people and wounded dozens of others on Tuesday, security and medical officials said.
 
The blasts struck an Iraqi army checkpoint south of Baghdad, a military base north of the capital, and a mostly Shiite neighbourhood in north Baghdad, the officials said.
 
In the deadliest attack, six people were killed when a car bomb was detonated near an army camp in the town of Taji, 25 kilometres north of Baghdad, an army officer and a medical official said.
 
At least 20 other people were wounded.
 
South of the capital in the town of Mahmudiyah, at least five people were killed and 14 others wounded by a suicide car bomb, officials said.
 
And a car bomb near a market in the north Baghdad neighbourhood of Shuala killed five people and wounded 12.
 
No group claimed responsibility, but Sunni militants often launch attacks in a bid to destabilise the government and push Iraq back towards the sectarian violence that blighted it from 2005 to 2008.
 
Tuesday's violence came after four days of relative calm in Iraq following a spate of attacks claimed by Al-Qaeda's front group that left at least 88 people dead on January 15-17, according to an AFP tally.