A series of bombings carried out with improvised explosive devices rocked densely-populated areas of the Iraqi capital of Baghdad Saturday evening, wounding at least ten people.
One of the explosions targeted a popular cafe in the New Baghdad, to the northeast of the city, security sources told Kurdistan 24. A second and third incident occurred in the northwestern Jokuk and Hurriya neighborhoods. The sources mentioned the fourth explosion was set off in Qahira, also to the north of the capital.
No one has yet claimed responsibility for the attacks.
Although initial reports indicated that seven civilians were wounded in the blasts, later reports from local media claimed at least ten people had been injured. The death toll in such bombings can often grow in the first few days that follow, as numbers are confirmed and as some of the more seriously wounded victims succumb to their wounds.
The incidents come amid ongoing national unrest as anti-government protesters who first took to the streets in October to demand the expulsion of what they say is a chronically corrupt political elite that has dominated successive Iraqi governments amid persistent low living standards.
A recent bout of flaring violence came after influential cleric and senior politician Muqtada al-Sadr ordered his militia and supporters to disperse demonstrators in a number of cities in the south.
Confrontations escalated and resulted in the deaths of at least eight protesters, as Sadr’s men torched tents at protest camps and fired at unarmed persons, marking one of the deadliest nights of violence against protesters.
Members of various Iraqi security forces have killed at least 550 demonstrators and wounded tens of thousands more, according to official data by parliament’s Human Rights Committee. Unofficial estimates range well over 600 deaths and over 20,000 others injured.
Source: Kurdistan24
