40 killed in wave of car bombings across Baghdad

Baghdad's Kadhimiya district was also attacked earlier in August Coordinated bombings ripped through mostly Shiite neighbourhoods in the Baghdad area during rush hour on Wednesday, killing at least 40 people, the latest in spiralling violence in recent months. More than a dozen explosions -- most of them car bombs, but also at least two suicide attacks -- went off in predominantly Shiite areas of the Iraqi capital, as well as two confessionally mixed towns just to its south, security and medical officials said.
The attacks also wounded more than 140 people, the officials added.
They came despite widely publicised security operations targeting militants in the capital and to the north and west, though the government has faced criticism it is not dealing with the root causes of Iraq's worst violence since 2008.
The rise in unrest since the beginning of the year, with more than 3,700 people killed in 2013, has sparked concerns the country is teetering on the edge of a return to the brutal all-out sectarian war that plagued it in 2006 and 2007.
The deadliest attack on Wednesday struck in the Jisr al-Diyala neighbourhood of southeast Baghdad, with at least seven people killed and 21 others wounded in twin bombings.
Another car bomb in the Baghdad Jadidah area, which left four dead, also badly damaged nearby cars and shopfronts, an AFP journalist said.
All that was left of the car bomb was mangled metal, while onlookers railed against the authorities for failing to ensure security.
"We are poor people, and all of our things have been burned, and our home has fallen to the ground," said Marwa, an 18-year-old resident of Shaab, a north Baghdad neighbourhood where four people were killed.
"The politicians are fighting over positions and not looking after us," she continued.
"The people are homeless because of these explosions. Who is going to compensate us? Who is going to compensate the youth?"
Blasts also went off in other major Shiite neighbourhoods including Kadhimiyah and Sadr City.
The officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity, gave varying tolls, which is common in the chaotic aftermath of bombings in Baghdad, and the number of casualties appeared to be increasing.
No group immediately claimed responsibility for the attacks, but Sunni militants linked to Al-Qaeda frequently carry out such coordinated attacks targeting Shiite Muslims, whom they regard as apostates.
Wednesday's attacks were the latest wave of coordinated bombings to hit Baghdad this month.
On August 6, at least eight car bombs and several roadside bombs killed 31 people, while 47 people died in a spate of explosions and gun attacks in the capital on August 10. Five days later, 24 people died in nine bombings in Baghdad.
Iraq has seen a marked rise in the level of violence since the beginning of the year, coinciding with demonstrations by the country's Sunni Arab minority against alleged ill treatment at the hands of the Shiite-led government and security forces.
Though diplomats and analysts have urged broad-reaching moves to tackle Sunni frustrations, which they say give militant groups room to recruit and carry out attacks, Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki has vowed to press on with an anti-militant campaign led by security forces.
In recent weeks, officials say security forces have dismantled militant training camps and bomb-making sites, arrested hundreds of alleged insurgents and killed dozens of others.
In addition to persistent security problems, though, the government has also failed to provide adequate basic services such as electricity and clean water, and corruption is widespread.
Political squabbling has also paralysed the government, which has passed almost no major legislation in years.
Source: AFP