Blasts bleed Baghdad

A dozen car bombs and suicide blasts tore into Shi’ite Muslim districts across Baghdad and south of the Iraqi capital on Tuesday, killing nearly 65 people on the 10th anniversary of the US-led invasion that ousted Saddam Hussein.At least 20 explosions and two assassinations also left more than 170 people wounded in the country’s bloodiest day in more than six months.No group immediately claimed responsibility for the violence.Authorities later announced that provincial polls scheduled for April 20, which would have been Iraq’s first vote in three years, were delayed in two provinces, Anbar and Nineveh.Most of Tuesday’s attacks struck in Shiite neighbourhoods in Baghdad during morning rush hour, with security forces stepping up searches at checkpoints and closing off key roads, worsening the capital’s gridlock, an AFP reporter said.The violence started at around 8am Tuesday, when a bomb exploded outside a popular restaurant in Baghdad’s Mashtal neighbourhood, killing four people, according to police and hospital officials.It blew out the eatery’s windows and left several cars mangled in the blood-streaked street.Minutes later, a roadside bomb hit a gathering point for day labourers in the New Baghdad area, killing two of them.The sprawling Shiite slum district of Sadr City was hit by three explosions that killed 10 people, including three commuters on a minibus.Another car bomb exploded outside a restaurant near one of the main gates to the fortified Green Zone, which houses major government offices and the US and British embassies, killing six people, including two soldiers.A suicide bomber in a truck attacked a police base in a Shi’ite town south of the capital, officials said.In all, at least 15 car bombs were set off, including two by suicide attackers, along with multiple roadside bombs and gun attacks, officials said.Soldiers and police also established new checkpoints, and unusually, were searching at least some government-marked vehicles that are typically allowed to pass uninspected.This was the deadliest day since Sept.9, when 76 people were killed.The symbolism of Tuesday’s attacks was strong, coming 10 years to the day that Washington launched the invasion with a “shock and awe” campaign of airstrikes on March 19, 2003 - before dawn the following day in Iraq. source : Gulftoday