At least 13 people have been killed by a car bomb in Baghdad in one of the deadliest attacks in the Iraqi capital this year.
“At least 13 people were killed and 39 wounded in a car bomb facing a popular restaurant in the Karrada area,” a police colonel told news agency AFP.
Karrada is an area full of shops and restaurants and would have been busy on Saturday night, which marks the end of the weekend in Iraq.
No one has so far claimed responsibility for the attack in the predominantly Shiite district, which comes after a series of similar bombings in the capital.
Eleven people were killed and more than 40 wounded in a wave of car bomb attacks on Thursday and another nine were killed in two car bombings in Baghdad on Monday.
The Islamic State jihadist group claimed it carried out those attacks on Shiite districts of Baghdad to avenge attacks on displaced persons from a Sunni province.
Since the start of April, 114,000 residents have fled fighting between government forces and IS in the Ramadi area of the western province of Anbar, which is largely controlled by the Sunni extremist group, according to United Nations’ figures.
Police said several of the displaced were kidnapped and killed in Baghdad, including four victims found on April 25 with gunshot wounds to the head.
Despite the recent attacks, such killings have decreased sharply in number compared to the same period last year.
Bombings and shootings in Baghdad were once a daily occurrence, but have declined since IS launched a major offensive last June, seizing control of vast areas north and west of the city.
It was believed those movements tied IS fighters to fighting outside Baghdad, limiting their ability to carry out attacks inside the capital.
A curfew in operation for years in the Iraqi capital was lifted in February.
Soldiers targeted in Anbar province
At least 12 Iraqi soldiers and paramilitary forces were killed on Saturday by suicide car bombs targeting an outpost in western Anbar province, security and medical sources said.
The fighters were part of a campaign announced by the government last month to recapture parts of the Sunni heartland from the Islamic State group, which has held the territory for the past year.
The forces were targeted in a train station in Garma, on the road to the IS stronghold of Falluja, 15 kilometres to the east.
The ultra-radical group did not claim the attacks, but the tactic was one they often employ.
“Five of the armoured car bombs managed to reach our forces in the train station and blew up. It reduced the station to dirt,” an army officer told news agency Reuters.
He said the fighters managed to destroy another six car bombs before they reached their targets.
The officer said the death toll was likely more than 12.
Bodies were still being pulled from the rubble and the army had sent reinforcements that continued to clash with militants.
Tribal sources from Garma confirmed the attack but were not able to provide details. Government officials could not be reached for comment.
AFP/Reuters
