Wave of Iraq attacks kills at least 32

BAGHDAD - Agence France-Presse

Iraqi men walk past a damaged vehicle on September 10, 2012 at the scene of a bomb attack which hit Baghdad's Shiite Muslim suburb of Sadr City the previous night. AFP Photo

A wave of shooting and bombings in Iraq today killed at least 32 people and wounded 104, security and medical officials said.

A suicide bomber detonated an explosives-packed car in Karrada in central Baghdad, targeting the deputy head of police for the area, a police officer at the scene said.
 
The blast killed two people and wounded at least five others, an interior ministry official and a medical source said.
 
The explosion scattered debris for dozens of metres (yards) from the site of the blast, shattered store windows and burned some cars, smashing the windows and denting the body work of a number of others.
 
A headless, limbless torso surrounded by pieces of flesh lay across the street from the site of the explosion.
 
Police, most of them armed with Kalashnikov assault rifles, deployed in force on the street, and a fire truck sprayed down the site of the blast.
 
"We were working and we heard a loud explosion, and the air changed and everything exploded," said Firas Dawood, the owner of a shop near the site of the blast.
 
"What do I say about the security measures? Shit," he said.

The blast was followed by another car bomb that hit the same area that killed one policeman and wounded four other people, among them two police, the interior ministry official and a medical source said.
 
Gunmen also killed a policeman in Al-Amil neighbourhood in south Baghdad, and a car bomb exploded after a police patrol came to investigate, killing one and wounding four others, the ministry official said, while a medic put the toll at three dead and four wounded.
 
And a police colonel was wounded by gunmen in Mansur in western Baghdad, an interior ministry official and a medical source said.
 
Four car bombs exploded in Taji, north of Baghdad, killing at least six people and wounding eight others, the interior ministry official and a medical source said.
 
The first bomb exploded near a husseiniyah, or Shiite place of worship, in the Shiite-majority Al-Askari neighbourhood, followed by three others in the same area, a security official said, adding women and children were among the victims.
 
A car bomb targeting a police convoy killed two policemen and wounded seven others east of Baquba, a city further north of Baghdad, while another car bomb exploded south of Baquba, killing one person and wounding seven, police and a doctor from Baquba General Hospital said.
 
And another car bomb north of Baquba targeting police Brigadier General Mohammed al-Tamimi wounded five people, a police colonel and the doctor said.
 
In Madain, south of Baghdad, a car bomb killed two people and wounded at least nine others, the interior ministry official and a medical source said.
 
A witness said the bomb, which targeted a bus carrying Iranian pilgrims, exploded at 10:30 am (0730 GMT).

Farther south in Kut, a car bomb exploded near a police river patrol force station, killing a civilian and three police, including two officers, and wounding seven people, a police captain and a medical official said.
 
And a car bomb in the north Iraq city of Mosul exploded near an army patrol, wounding 15 people, among them a soldier, while a roadside bomb wounded four police, doctors and police said.
 
While insurgents opposed to the Baghdad government are regarded as weaker than in past years, they have shown they can strike at even the most heavily protected sites in Iraq.
 
Targets in recent months have included prisons, police stations, the anti-terrorism directorate in Baghdad, a military base and an entrance to Baghdad's heavily fortified Green Zone, where the government is headquartered.