At least 69 killed in Iraqi capital in series of bombings

BAGHDAD – The Associated Press

A series of bomb attacks in the Iraqi capital has killed at least 69 people and wounded scores of people on May 17, the second time in a week Baghdad has been hit by a deadly spate of violence. 

The death toll of 69 people given by Iraqi officials came after a latest bombing in the northeastern Baghdad neighborhood of Habibiyah killed nine people and wounded 18 early on the afternoon of May 17. Police officials said the attack targeted a restaurant.

In the largest attack of the day, a car bomb struck a crowded market in Baghdad’s northeastern Shaab neighborhood, killing 34 people there and wounding 75 others. 

Elsewhere in the Iraqi capital, at least 26 were killed.

So far, the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) claimed responsibility only for the deadliest of the attacks, the one in the Shaab neighborhood.

The unrest highlights significant flaws in Baghdad security procedures that have gone largely unaddressed even as U.S.-led forces train their Iraqi counterparts for the fight against ISIL.