Turkey condemns Iraq blasts

ANKARA – Anatolia Agency

Security forces inspect the site of a twin bombing at a crowded market in Baghdad, Iraq. AP photo

Turkey has condemned two separate blasts that rocked the Iraqi capital of Baghdad on Jan. 30.

At least 47 people were killed and 99 others wounded in several  explosions in Baghdad and in the central province of Samarra in Iraq.

Turkey's Foreign Ministry released a statement the same day, extending condolences to victims' families and wishing a fast recovery to those wounded.

"Turkey will continue to stand together with the brother government in Iraq and its people," the statement read.

Forty people lost their lives and 75 others were wounded when two improvised explosive devices blew up at a market place in Baghdad. The first was remotely detonated and the second exploded after the arrival of security forces, a police colonel said.

Seven people were killed and 24 others wounded in suicide attacks in Samarra, some 130 kilometers north of Baghdad.

All the dead were from the pro-government Shiite militia of volunteers, Al-Hashid al-Sha'bi, according to police captain Ahmed Khidr al-Samaraa'i.

Iraq has been gripped by a security vacuum since June 2014 when the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) stormed the northern province of Mosul and declared what it calls a caliphate in Iraq and Syria.