Dozens killed in Baghdad car bombs

At least 37 people killed, scores injured, after car bombs target market and Shia militia checkpoints in Baghdad.
 

File photo: At least 37 people have been killed by car bombs in Baghdad.
File photo: At least 37 people have been killed by car bombs in Baghdad.

At least 37 people have been killed by car bombs targeting a crowded market and Shia militia checkpoints in Baghdad, Iraqi authorities said.

The first bombs exploded on Saturday near the market in the town of Balad Ruz, 70 km north-east of Iraq’s capital, killing 11 people and wounding 50.

A further 31 people were injured and 16 Shia fighters were killed later when two suicide car bombers attacked a checkpoint by Shia militia near the city of Samarra, police said.

No one immediately claimed responsibility for the attacks.

Samarra and surrounding areas have been under constant attacks by Islamic State (ISIS) extremists. Clashes between Iraqi security forces and Islamic State militants followed the attack around Samarra, 60 miles (95km) north of Baghdad.

On Saturday night, police said a bomb killed four people in western Baghdad, while another in Baghdad’s neighborhood of Abu Dashir killed three people and wounded eight.

Four mortar shells also hit homes in Sabaa al-Bour, just north of Baghdad, killing three people and wounding six, police said.

Iraq’s interior ministry later said Iraqi border guards repelled an attack by Islamic State militants on a post on the Iraqi-Saudi border, saying several militants were killed.

The attacks came as the country’s prime minister, Haider al-Abadi, vowed to punish Isis militants who smashed rare and ancient artifacts in the northern city of Mosul. The militants hold Iraq’s second-largest city and the surrounding Nineveh province.

On Thursday, Isis released a video purportedly showing militants using sledgehammers to smash the statues, describing them as idols. The destruction is part of a campaign by the extremists, who have destroyed a number of shrines since last summer, and which drew global condemnation.