• Car bomb explosions in Baghdad kill more than 60

     

    At least 70 people have been killed in a wave of car bombs in Iraq, raising concerns the country may slip back into civil war. NBC's Annabel Roberts and Richard O'Kelly report.

    By Kareem Raheem, Reuters

    BAGHDAD — More than 60 people were killed in a series of car bomb explosions targeting Shi'ite Muslims across Iraq on Monday, police and medics said, part of the worst sectarian violence since U.S. troops pulled out in December 2011. 


    The attacks brought the number killed in sectarian clashes in the past week to over 200, and tensions between Shi'ites, who now lead Iraq, and minority Sunni Muslims have reached a point where some fear a return to all-out civil conflict. 

    No group claimed responsibility for the bombings. Iraq is home to a number of Sunni Islamist insurgent groups, including the al Qaeda-affiliated Islamic State of Iraq, which has previously targeted Shi'ites in a bid to provoke a wider sectarian confrontation. 

    Nine people were killed in one of two car bomb explosions in Basra, a predominantly Shi'ite city 260 miles southeast of Baghdad, police and medics said. 

    "I was on duty when a powerful blast shook the ground," said a police officer near the site of that attack in the Hayaniya neighborhood. 

    "The blast hit a group of day laborers gathering near a sandwich kiosk," he added, describing corpses littering the ground. "One of the dead bodies was still grabbing a blood-soaked sandwich in his hand." 

    Five other people were killed in a second blast inside a bus terminal in Saad Square, also in Basra, police and medics said. 

    In Baghdad, at least 30 people were killed in car bomb explosions in Kamaliya, Ilaam, Diyala Bridge, al-Shurta, Shula, Zaafaraniya and Sadr City - all areas with a high concentration of Shi'ites. 

    A parked car bomb also exploded in the mainly Shi'ite district of Shaab in northern Baghdad, killing 12 people and wounding 26 others, police and hospital sources said. 

    In a separate incident, police said a parked car blew up near a bus carrying Shi'ite Muslim pilgrims from Iran near Balad, 80 km (50 miles) north of Baghdad, killing five Iranian pilgrims and two Iraqis who were traveling to the Shi'ite holy city of Samarra. 

    CORPSES FOUND 

     In the western province of Anbar, the bodies of 14 people kidnapped on Saturday, including six policemen, were found dumped in the desert with bullet wounds to the head and chest, police and security sources said. 

    When Sunni-Shi'ite bloodshed was at its height in 2006-07, Anbar was in the grip of al Qaeda's Iraqi wing, which has regained strength in recent months. 

    In 2007, Anbar's Sunni tribes banded together with U.S. troops and helped subdue al Qaeda. Known as the "Sahwa" or Awakening militia, they are now on the government payroll and are often targeted by Sunni militants as punishment for co-operating with the Shi'ite-led government. 

    Three Sahwa members were killed in a car bomb explosion as they collected their salaries in the city of Samarra, north of Baghdad, police said. 

    Iraq's delicate intercommunal fabric is under increasing strain from the conflict in neighboring Syria, which has drawn Sunni and Shi'ite Muslims from across the region into a proxy war. 

    Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's main regional ally is Shi'ite Iran, while the rebels fighting to overthrow him are supported by Sunni Gulf powers Saudi Arabia and Qatar. 

    Iraq says it takes no sides in the conflict, but leaders in Tehran and Baghdad fear Assad's demise would make way for a hostile Sunni Islamist government in Syria, weakening Shi'ite influence in the Middle East.

    The prospect of a shift in the sectarian balance of power has emboldened Iraq's Sunni minority, embittered by Shi'ite dominance since the overthrow of Saddam Hussein by U.S.-led forces in 2003. 

    Thousands of Sunnis began staging street protests last December against Shi'ite Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki, whom they accuse of marginalizing their sect. 

    A raid by the Iraqi army on a protest camp in the town of Hawija last month ignited a bout of violence that left more than 700 people dead in April, according to a U.N. count, the highest monthly toll in almost five years. 

    At the height of sectarian violence in 2006-07, the monthly death toll sometimes topped 3,000.

    Copyright 2013 Thomson Reuters. Click for restrictions.

  • Suicide bomb blast kills 27 at Internet cafe in Baghdad

    By Kareem Raheem, Reuters

    A suicide bomber blew himself inside a Baghdad cafe popular with young people using the Internet, killing a least 27 and wounding dozens more in one of the worst single attacks in the Iraqi capital this year.


    The late evening blast in west Baghdad came just two days before provincial elections that will be a major test of Iraq's political stability more than a year after the last American troops left the country.

    Police and witnesses said emergency workers struggled to extricate victims trapped when the blast collapsed part of the building that also housed a shopping center below the Dubai cafe which was on the third floor.

    "It was a huge blast," a police official at the scene said. "Part of the building fell in and debris hit people shopping in the mall below."

    Ten years after the U.S.-led invasion, Sunni Islamists linked to al Qaeda carry out at least one major attack a month, but insurgents have stepped up suicide attacks since the start of the year as part of a campaign to provoke confrontation between the country's Shi'ite and Sunni Muslims.

    More than 30 people were killed in a series of bombings across Iraq on Monday and more than a dozen election candidates have been killed in the run-up to the vote.

    Security officials have been expecting more attacks before Saturday's ballot for provincial councils that will be a measure of Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki's political muscle before the parliamentary vote in 2014.

    A surge in violence in Iraq has accompanied the political crisis in the Shiite premier's government, where Shiite, Sunni and ethnic Kurds share posts in a fragile power-sharing deal that has been mostly paralyzed since U.S. troops left in December 2011.

    Al Qaeda's local wing, Islamic State of Iraq, has said it will keep up attacks and security officials say the group is gaining ground and recruits in the western desert bordering Syria, thanks in part to a boost from the flow of insurgents and funds into the neighboring country's war.

    Copyright 2013 Thomson Reuters. Click for restrictions.

  • At least 20 dead, 200 hurt in wave of attacks across Iraq

    At least 23 people are dead following a string of car bombing attacks in Iraq that stretched from Kirkuk to Baghdad. NBCNews.com's Dara Brown reports.

    By Kareem Raheem, Reuters

    BAGHDAD -- Car bombs and attacks in cities across Iraq -- including two blasts at a checkpoint at Baghdad’s international airport -- killed at least 20 people and wounded more than 200 on Monday, police said.

    The wave of attacks in Baghdad, Kirkuk, Tuz Khurmato and other towns came just days before Iraqis vote in provincial elections that will test political stability more than a year after U.S. troops left the country.

    No one claimed responsibility for Monday's bombings, but al Qaeda's local wing, the Islamic State of Iraq, and other Sunni Islamist groups have vowed to wage a campaign against Shiites and the government to stoke sectarian confrontation.

    Ako Rasheed / Reuters

    Iraq was hit by a wave of attacks on Monday, including a bomb blast in Kirkuk, 155 miles north of Baghdad.

    Two people were killed by car bombs that exploded at a Baghdad airport checkpoint, police sources said.

    Attacks on the heavily guarded airport and the fortified International Zone housing many embassies are rare, but insurgents have stepped up bombings this year.

    "Two vehicles managed to reach the entrance of Baghdad airport and were left parked there. While we were doing routine searches, the two cars exploded seconds apart. Two passengers travelling to the airport were killed," a police source said.

    The most deadly attack was in Tuz Khurmato, 105 miles north of Baghdad, where four bombs targeting police patrols killed five people and wounded 67, officials said.

    Iraqis vote on Saturday for members of provincial councils in a ballot that will test Shiite Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki's political muscle against Shiite and Sunni rivals before a parliamentary election in 2014.

    Ten years after the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq, al Qaeda is regaining ground, especially in the western desert close to Syria's border. Islamic State of Iraq says it has joined forces with al-Nusra Front rebels fighting in Syria.

    Sunni insurgents, especially al Qaeda, see Baghdad's Shiite-led government as oppressors of the country's Sunni minority and see Shiites in general as apostates from true Islam.

    Related:

    Iraq, 10 years on: Did invasion bring 'hope and progress' to millions as Bush vowed?

    Ten years after Iraq invasion, US troops ask: 'Was it worth it?'

    Bombs kill at least 50 on 10th anniversary of Iraq invasion

    Copyright 2013 Thomson Reuters. Click for restrictions.

  • Kerry urges Iraq to stop arms flow to Syria on Baghdad visit

    Jason Reed / Reuters

    U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry meets with Iraq's Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki in Baghdad, Iraq, March 24, 2013.

     

    By Arshad Mohammed, Reuters

    Secretary of State John Kerry made an unannounced visit to Iraq on Sunday and said he told Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki of his concern about Iranian flights over Iraq carrying arms to Syria.

    John Kerry had spirited discussions with Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki during his first trip to the country as secretary of state, NBC's Andrea Mitchell reports.

    Washington believes such flights and overland transfers take place nearly every day and help Syrian President Bashar al-Assad in his efforts to crush a two-year-old revolt against his rule, said a U.S. official, who spoke on condition of anonymity.

    Kerry said he had told Maliki the Iranian flights through Iraqi airspace were "problematic".

    "Anything that supports President Assad is problematic," Kerry told reporters. "I made it very clear to the prime minister that the overflights from Iran ... are in fact helping to sustain President Assad and his regime."

    Speaking before the meeting, the U.S. official said the Iraqi government had inspected only two flights since last July and that Kerry would argue Iraq did not deserve a role in talks about neighboring Syria's future unless it tried to stop the suspected arms flow.

    Iraqi officials denied allowing the transfer of weapons from Iran to Syria through Iraqi airspace. Abbas al-Bayati, a member of the Security and Defence parliamentary committee, said: "We have done our duty by randomly inspecting a number of Iranian flights and we did not find any leaked or smuggled weapons."

    "If the U.S. is keen to push us to do more they have to give us the information that they have relating to this," he said.

    More than a decade after the U.S.-led invasion that toppled Saddam Hussein, Iraq still struggles with insurgents, sectarian friction and political feuds among Shi'ite, Sunni and Kurdish factions who share power in the government of Shi'ite premier Maliki.

    Sunni Islamist insurgents linked to al Qaeda and invigorated by the war next door in Syria - where Sunni rebels are battling Assad, an ally of Shi'ite Iran - are regaining ground in Iraq and have stepped up attacks on Shi'ite targets in recent months in an attempt to provoke a wider sectarian confrontation.

    Kerry held talks with representatives of all three communities, including Osama al-Nujaifi, the Sunni speaker of parliament.

    He also spoke by telephone to Massoud Barzani, president of Iraq's Kurdish region, whose regional government is pressing ahead with plans to build an oil pipeline to Turkey that Washington fears could lead to the break-up of Iraq.

    According to reporters at a picture-taking session at the start of Kerry's talks with Maliki, the U.S. diplomat appeared to joke that Hillary Clinton, his predecessor, had said Iraq would do whatever Washington asked.

    "The Secretary told me that you're going to do everything that I say," Kerry said, according to the reporters.

    "We won't do it," Maliki, also joking, replied, the reporters said.

    SUICIDE BLASTS

    In his talks with Maliki, Kerry also asked the Iraqi prime minister and his cabinet to reconsider a decision to postpone local elections in two Sunni-majority provinces, Anbar and Nineveh, the U.S. official said.


    The Iraqi cabinet last week postponed the votes, which were due on April 20, for up to six months because of threats to electoral workers and violence there - a step Washington believes will only increase tensions.

    While violence has fallen from the height of the sectarian slaughter that killed tens of thousands in 2006-2007, insurgents have carried out at least one major attack a month since U.S. forces left. Bombings and killings still happen daily, often aimed at Shi'ite areas and local security forces.

    More than a dozen car bombs and suicide blasts tore through Shi'ite Muslim districts in the Iraqi capital Baghdad and other areas on Tuesday, killing nearly 60 people on the 10th anniversary of the U.S.-led invasion that ousted Saddam.

    Further complicating security, thousands of Sunni protesters have rallied in Anbar against Maliki, whose Shi'ite-led government they accuse of marginalizing their minority sect since the fall of Sunni strongman Saddam.

    Additional reporting by Suadad al-Salhy

    Copyright 2013 Thomson Reuters. Click for restrictions.

  • Al Qaeda in Iraq vows 'revenge,' claims responsibility for invasion anniversary attacks

    Mohammed Ameen / Reuters

    Iraqis examine damage inflicted on their house by a car-bomb attack in the Al-Mashtal district of Baghdad Tuesday. Al Qaeda in Iraq claimed responsibility and warned of more attacks to come.

    By Aseel Kami, Reuters

    BAGHDAD - Al Qaeda in Iraq has claimed responsibility for a wave of bombings and suicide attacks on Tuesday that killed around 60 people on the 10th anniversary of the U.S.-led invasion.

    Islamic State of Iraq, the country's al Qaeda wing, is regaining strength, invigorated by the Sunni Muslim rebellion in next door Syria and has carried out dozens of high-profile attacks since the start of the year.

    "What has reached you on Tuesday is just the first drop of rain, and a first phase, for by God's will after this we will have our revenge," the al Qaeda statement posted on a jihadist website said.

    Car bombs and suicide blasts hit mainly Shiite districts in Baghdad and other cities on Tuesday.

    Suicide attackers have struck nearly two times a week since January, a rate Iraq has not seen for several years.

    Sunni Islamists see Iraq's Shiite-led government as oppressors of the country's Sunni minority and target Shiites to try to provoke a sectarian confrontation like the inter-communal slaughter that killed thousands in 2006-7.

    A decade after U.S. and Western troops swept into Iraq to oust Saddam Hussein, the oil-producing country still struggles with sectarian tensions and political instability that test the fragile unity among Shiite, Sunni and Kurdish ethnic groups.

    Ten years after the US launched a "shock and awe" campaign toppling Saddam Hussein, the cost of the Iraq War is now estimated to be about $2 trillion -- but the region is far from stable. NBC's Richard Engel reports.

    Related:

    Iraq, 10 years on: Did invasion bring 'hope and progress' to millions as Bush vowed?

    'People turned on Christians': Persecuted Iraqi minority reflects on life after Saddam

    Then and now: Revisiting Iraqi sites a decade later


    Copyright 2013 Thomson Reuters. Click for restrictions.

  • Car bombs rip through Baghdad shops, restaurants, killing 26

    By Kareem Raheem, Reuters

    BAGHDAD - Several car bombs exploded in Shi'ite Muslim neighborhoods across Iraq's capital Baghdad on Sunday morning, killing at least 26 people in blasts that tore into shops, restaurants and busy commercial streets.

    No-one claimed responsibility for the attacks but Sunni Muslim insurgents have stepped up their operations since the beginning of the year in a bid to undermine the Shi'ite-led government and trigger deeper intercommunal fighting.

    One blast tore off shop fronts in Qaiyara district while another left the remains of a car and its twisted engine littered across a high street in the busy, commercial Karrada district packed with restaurants and shops.

    "I was buying an air conditioner and suddenly there was an explosion. I threw myself on the ground. Minutes later I saw many people around, some of them dead, others wounded," said Habibiya district salesman Jumaa Kareem, his jacket spattered with blood.

    Sunday's blasts followed the assassination of a senior Iraqi army intelligence officer on Saturday, the latest in a wave of suicide bombings since January. No one claimed responsibility for that attack.

    Many Iraq Sunnis feel they have been sidelined and unfairly targeted by security forces since the fall of Saddam Hussein and the rise of the country's Shi'ite majority through the ballot box.

    Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki's fragile power-sharing government, made up of Shi'ite, Sunni and ethnic Kurds, has been paralyzed by political infighting since American troops, who invaded the OPEC country to oust Saddam in 2003, withdrew more than a year ago.

    Violence is still far from the mass sectarian bloodletting that killed tens of thousands in 2006-2007, though insurgents have carried out at least one big attack a month since the last U.S. troops left.

    More than 10 suicide attackers have struck security forces, Shi'ite targets and a Sunni lawmaker since the start of January.

    In the most recent attacks, a suicide bomber killed the head of the army's intelligence school on Saturday after storming his home in a northern town. Another suicide bomber killed 26 at a Shi'ite funeral at the start of the month.

    There are fears the war in neighboring Syria - where Sunni rebels are fighting to oust President Bashar al-Assad, an ally of Shi'ite Iran - could further destabilize Iraq's delicate sectarian and ethnic balance. 

    Copyright 2013 Thomson Reuters. Click for restrictions.

  • Car bombs kill 23 Shiite Muslims in Iraqi capital

    Hadi Mizban / AP

    Neighbors react a day after a bomb blast on Zahra Shiite mosque in the Hurriya neighborhood of Baghdad on Nov. 28, 2012.

    Mohammed Ameen / Reuters

    A man stands amid debris after a bomb attack in the Shuala district of Baghdad on November 28, 2012. The deadliest of three attacks occurred in the Shuala district, where a car bomb parked outside a Shiite place of worship exploded as people were leaving the building, killing nine.

    Reuters reports — Three car bombings killed 23 Shiite Muslims during mourning processions in the Iraqi capital Baghdad on Tuesday, police and hospital sources said.

    Bombs target Kurds in Iraq's disputed north

    Dozens more were injured in the explosions. They struck during the holy month of Ashoura, of special significance to Shiites who are prime targets of al Qaeda's Iraqi affiliate and other Sunni Muslim insurgents. Read the full story.

    Mohammed Ameen / Reuters

    Residents gather at the site of a car bomb attack in the Shuala district of Baghdad on Nov. 28, 2012.

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  • Iraq bus blast kills more than 30 during Eid holiday

    Thaier Al-sudani / REUTERS

    Residents inspect the site of a bomb attack in Baghdad Oct. 27, 2012. Two blasts hit a Baghdad Shi'ite neighborhood and a bus full of Iranian pilgrims on Saturday, killing at least 30 people on the second day of the Islamic Eid al Adha religious festival, police and hospital sources said.

     

    By Reuters

    BAGHDAD — Bombings on Shiite neighborhoods in Baghdad and a blast on an Iranian pilgrim bus killed more than 30 people on Saturday, marring Iraqi celebrations of the second day of the Islamic Eid al Adha religious festival.

    Violence in Iraq has eased sharply, but Sunni Islamist insurgents and al-Qaida's Iraq wing often target Shiites in an attempt to stir up the kind of sectarian tensions that dragged the country close to civil war in 2006-2007.

    Two car bombs exploded on Saturday, one ripping into a restaurant in the Shiite stronghold of Sadr City and killing at least 23 people, police and hospital sources said.

    Watch World News videos on NBCNews.com

    "I was just selling fruit and we were surprised by a huge explosion on the other side of the street," Hassan Falih Shami, a grocery stall owner near the site of the blast. "You can see pools of blood, the shoes and pieces of clothing."


    Hours earlier, a roadside bomb planted near an open-air market killed seven people, including three children at a playground. Another blast killed six people when it hit a bus carrying Iranian pilgrims to a Baghdad shrine, police and hospital officials said.

    Police said the attack on the Iranian pilgrims came from a bomb that had been attached to their bus. It exploded around 300 yards from a police checkpoint, sending the bus out of control before it flipped over on its side.

    Insurgents have carried out at least one major attack a month since the last U.S. troops left in December. Iraqi officials worry Syria's crisis is bolstering Iraqi insurgents.

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    The monthly death toll from attacks in Iraq doubled in September to 365, the highest number of casualties in two years, including a series of bombings targeting Shiite neighborhoods that killed more than 100 people.

    Security officials had said they believe insurgents would try to carry out a large attack during the religious holiday, which started on Friday.

    Car bombs exploded and mortars landed around the Shiite neighborhood of Shula, northwestern Baghdad, on Tuesday killing eight people and wounding 28, and another person was killed by a mortar round in Kadhimiya area.

    Reporting by Raheem Salman; Writing by Patrick Markey

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  • Fugitive Iraqi VP denounces death sentence as 'politically motivated'

    By NBCNews.com wire services

    ANKARA, Turkey -- Fugitive Iraqi Vice President Tariq al-Hashemi on Monday denounced a death sentence against him as politically motivated and issued by a "kangaroo court." He said he would not return to Iraq from Turkey within 30 days as demanded.

    The politically-charged case sparked a crisis in Iraq's government and has fueled Sunni Muslim and Kurdish resentment against Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, a Shiite who critics say is monopolizing power.

    "Yesterday Prime Minister Maliki and his ... judiciary concluded the final phase of the theatrical campaign against me using a kangaroo court set up for this purpose. It was really a shambles," Hashemi told a news conference in the Turkish capital Ankara.

    "Therefore, while reconfirming my and my guards' absolute innocence, I totally reject and will never recognize the unfair, the unjust, the politically motivated verdict," he said.

    Sectarian divide
    Al-Hashemi, a Sunni, had accused al-Maliki's government of controlling the judiciary and of orchestrating a crackdown on Sunni opponents. He had refused to appear in a court he dismissed as biased.


    Al-Hashemi and his son-in-law were both found guilty in absentia of murdering a female lawyer and security official, Abdul-Sattar al-Birqdar, a judiciary spokesman said.

    The trial, which began last spring, featured testimony from the vice president's former bodyguards, who said they were ordered, and then paid, to launch the attacks. Government forces who found weapons when they raided al-Hashemi's house and that of his son-in-law also testified in the case, as did relatives of the victims.

    Iraq's government has accused al-Hashemi of playing a role in 150 bombings, assassinations and other attacks from 2005 to 2011 -- most of which were allegedly carried out by his bodyguards and other employees. Most of the attacks the government claims al-Hashemi was behind targeted the vice president's political foes, as well as government officials, security forces and Shiite pilgrims.

    The charges against the vice president span the worst years of bloodshed that followed the 2003 U.S.-led invasion of Iraq, when sectarian attacks between Sunni and Shiite militants pushed the country to the brink of civil war.

    Death toll in Iraq tops 100 as fugitive VP gets death sentence

    Al-Hashemi has claimed that his bodyguards were likely tortured or otherwise coerced into testifying against him.

    "This is a political decision. All our respect to the Iraqi judicial system, but this was political," said lawmaker Jaber al-Jaberi, a member of Hashemi's Sunni-backed Iraqiya party.

    Strengthening al-Maliki's hand
    Iraqi political analyst Hadi Jalo said the verdict against al-Hashemi will help the embattled prime minster.

    "With this verdict al-Maliki will be stronger as it will strengthen his hands," Jalo said. "The verdict, the most important since the trial of the Saddam Hussein who was hanged in 2006 with al-Maliki in office, will serve as a message to all that the government will not tolerate" misdeeds, he said.

    Dozens of people were killed in Iraq following a series of attacks in cities across the country. There have been more than 20 explosions mostly targeted at security forces, leaving many dead, as Annabel Roberts reports.

    Hours before the sentence was announced on Sunday, a wave of bombings and shootings had already killed dozens of people and a car bomb had exploded outside a French consular office in Nassiriya in southern Iraq.

    Related: US auditors say $200m wasted on Iraqi police training

    Since the last U.S. troops left, al-Maliki's Shiite-led government has been politically deadlocked and insurgents have continued to strike, apparently hoping to ignite the kind of sectarian tensions that drove Iraq close to civil war in 2006-2007.

    After the fall of Sunni dictator Saddam Hussein and the rise to power of Iraq's Shiite majority, many Iraqi Sunnis feel they have been sidelined.

    Sunni politicians say al-Maliki is failing to live up to agreements to share power among the parties, a charge his backers dismiss, pointing to Sunnis in key posts.

    Complete World coverage on NBCNews.com

    When the al-Hashemi charges were announced, his Iraqiya party attempted a short-lived boycott of parliament and the Cabinet. But the party has since splintered further, strengthening the political hand of al-Maliki’s Shiite coalition.

    Heightened political tension is often accompanied by a surge in violence as Sunni Islamist insurgents try to capitalize on instability to strike at the government, local security forces and Shiite religious targets.

    More Middle East & North Africa coverage on NBCNews.com

    Major coordinated attacks continue
    Violence in Iraq has eased since the dark days of sectarian slaughter that erupted after the 2003 invasion. But insurgents are still carrying out at least one major coordinated attack a month.

    Infighting in the religiously mixed government, and a resurgence of a local al-Qaida wing, are raising fears of a return to wider violence, especially as Iraq is struggling to contain spillover from Syria's crisis over the border.

    'Emergency red list' targets Syria's looted treasures

    Iraq's local al-Qaida affiliate, Islamic State of Iraq, has claimed responsibility for major attacks on security forces and Shiite neighborhoods. Former members of Saddam's outlawed Baathist party and other Sunni Islamist groups are also fighting the government.

    Reuters and The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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  • Two car bombs rip through public square in Baghdad

    By Reuters

    Two car bombs ripped into a busy intersection and a public square in Baghdad on Tuesday, killing at least 19 people a week after a wave of deadly bombings highlighted Iraq's struggle with militant groups.


    Clouds of dark smoke rose above the center of the capital where the bombs exploded just minutes apart, leaving dead and wounded lying in the street and slumped inside a damaged minibus, witnesses and police said.

    Violence in Iraq has coincided with intensifying bloodshed in neighboring Syria, where Iraqi officials warn some Sunni Muslim insurgents are heading, and with calls by al-Qaida's local Iraqi affiliate for a renewed campaign of attacks.

    Three young men in blood-stained T-shirts searched for a friend near the wreckage of one of Tuesday's blasts in Baghdad and women in traditional abaya gowns screamed out the name of a missing relative, a Reuters reporter at the scene said.

    A wave of seemingly synchronized bomb and gun attacks swept Iraq on July 23. With at least 90 killed throughout the country, the death toll was the highest seen so far in 2012. NBC's Kristy Breetzke reports.

    "We were in a patrol when we heard the first explosion. The second explosion hit another square, and we went to help... There was a minibus with six dead passengers inside it," said Ahmed Hassan, a police officer.

    The explosions followed attacks and bombings in Baghdad and across the country on July 23 that killed more than 100 people in a coordinated surge of violence against mostly Shi'ite Muslim targets. An al-Qaida affiliate known as the Islamic State of Iraq claimed responsibility.

    Wave of attacks kills more than 100 across Iraq

    Violence has eased since sectarian killings reached their height in 2006-2007 when tens of thousands of Sunnis and Shiites were slain.

    But insurgents have carried out a major attack at least once a month since the last U.S. troops left Iraq in December, nine years after the invasion that toppled Saddam Hussein.

    US vets mix regret, detachment on Iraq violence

    Al-Qaida often targets Shiite pilgrims or religious sites in an attempt to stir up sectarian tensions or to show that Iraq's armed forces are unable to protect civilians.

    Last month was one of the bloodiest since the U.S. withdrawal, with at least 237 people killed and 603 wounded.

    Iraq's violence often feeds into political tensions.

    Full international coverage from NBCNews.com

    Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki, a Shiite, is fending off attempts by Sunni and Kurdish rivals to vote him out of office, threatening to scuttle a fragile power-sharing agreement.

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  • Wave of attacks kills more than 100 across Iraq

    A wave of seemingly synchronized bomb and gun attacks swept Iraq on Monday. With scores killed throughout the country, the death toll was the highest seen so far in 2012. NBC's Kristy Breetzke reports.

    By NBC News wire services

    Updated at 9:40 a.m. ET: BAGHDAD, Iraq -- A wave of bombings and an attack on an Iraqi military base killed more than 100 people on Monday. The death toll made it the bloodiest day of the year in the country, The Associated Press reported. 

    In addition to those killed, at least 268 other people were wounded by bombings and shootings in Shiite areas of Baghdad, the town of Taji to the north, the northern cities of Kirkuk and Mosul and many other places, hospital and police sources told Reuters.

    The bloodshed, which coincided with an intensifying of the conflict in neighboring Syria, pointed up the deficiencies of the Iraqi security forces, which failed to prevent insurgents from striking in multiple locations across the country.

    No group has claimed responsibility for the wave of assaults but a senior Iraqi security official blamed the local wing of al-Qaida, made up of Sunni Muslim militants bitterly hostile to the Shiite-led government, which is friendly with Iran.

    "Recent attacks are a clear message that al-Qaida in Iraq is determined to spark a bloody sectarian war," the official, who asked not to be named, told Reuters.

    "With what's going on in Syria, these attacks should be taken seriously as a potential threat to our country. Al-Qaida is trying to push Iraq to the verge of Shiite-Sunni war," he said. "They want things to be as bad as in Syria."

    'Innocent people killed'
    The last two days of attacks shattered a two-week lull in violence in the run-up to the Muslim holy fasting month of Ramadan, which started in Iraq on Saturday.

    Sectarian slaughter peaked in 2006-2007 but deadly attacks have persisted while political tensions among Iraq's main Shiite, Sunni and Kurdish factions have increased since U.S. troops completed their withdrawal in December.

    "I ask the government if security forces are capable of keeping control," a man named Ahmed Salim shouted angrily at the scene of a car bomb in Kirkuk. "With all these bloody bombs and innocent people killed, the government should reconsider its security plans," he told Reuters Television.


    Trail of destruction
    The security forces themselves were often the targets or victims of the assaults perpetrated across Iraq.

    Gunmen using assault rifles and hand grenades killed at least 16 soldiers in an attack on an army post near Dhuluiya, 45 miles north of Baghdad, police and army sources said.

    In Taji, 12 miles north of Baghdad, six explosions, including a car bombing, occurred near a housing complex. A seventh blast there caused carnage among police who had arrived at the scene of the earlier ones. In all, 32 people were killed, including 14 police, with 48 wounded, 10 of them police.

    Two car bombs struck near a government building in Sadr City, a vast, poor Shiite swathe of Baghdad, and in the mainly Shiite area of Hussainiya on the outskirts of the capital, killing a total of 21 people and wounding 73, police said.

    Full international coverage from NBCNews.com

    Nine people, including six soldiers, were killed in attacks in the northern city of Mosul, police and army sources told Reuters.

    In Kirkuk, five car bombs killed six people and wounded 17, while explosions and gun attacks on security checkpoints around the restive province of Diyala killed six people, including four soldiers and policemen, and wounded 30, police sources told Reuters.

    Other deadly attacks occurred in the towns of Khan Bani Saad, Udhaim, Tuz Khurmato, Samarra and Dujail, all north of Baghdad, as well as in the southern city of Diwaniya.

    The orchestrated spate of violence followed car bombs on Sunday in two towns south of Baghdad and in the Shiite shrine city of Najaf that killed a total of 20 people and wounded 80.

    Last month was one of the bloodiest since the U.S. withdrawal, with at least 237 people killed and 603 wounded.

    Latest news about Iraq from NBCNews.com

    Iraq, whose huge desert province of Anbar, a Sunni heartland, borders Syria, is nervous about the impact of the conflict in its neighbor where mainly Sunni rebels are fighting to end President Bashar al-Assad's Alawite-dominated rule.

    Hundreds of thousands of Iraqis took refuge in Syria from bloodshed that lasted for years after the 2003 U.S.-led invasion that toppled Saddam Hussein. Last week the Iraqi government urged them to return home to escape the violence in Syria.

    20 unarmed men executed in Damascus, Syria activists say; battle begins for Aleppo

    At least 80 buses laden with returning Iraqi refugees crossed the border last week, a U.N. spokeswoman said.

    Iraq's Shiite-led government is also worried about the longer-term implications if Assad falls and Syria's majority Sunnis overthrow the supremacy of the president's Alawite sect, which traces its roots to Shiite Islam.

    A sectarian struggle for control in post-Assad Syria could raise tensions across the border and damage Iraq's chances of overcoming its own formidable security and political challenges.

    The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.

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