By DPA,
Baghdad : At least 25 people were killed in four car bombings across the Iraqi capital Monday, the police said.
Four powerful explosions shook Baghdad over the space of two hours, injuring at least 55 people, police said.
The first bombing struck the central Baghdad neighbourhood of al-Allawi, killing at least four people and injuring at least 15, police and Baghdad’s al-Iraqia television channel said.
Most of the casualties in that blast were day-labourers looking for work and bystanders, police told DPA.
That attack was quickly followed by a blast in a crowded market in the predominantly Shia slum of Sadr City. At least 10 people were killed and another 28 were wounded in that attack, police said.
In New Baghdad Monday morning, a car bomb missed its apparent target of an interior ministry official passing by, but killed at least two people, including a civilian and a policeman.
The fourth car bomb targeted a market in the northern Baghdad suburb of al-Husseinia, police said.
It was not clear who was responsible for the car bombings, or if they were coordinated.
Baghdad has become much safer in recent months, as violence across Iraq has fallen to its lowest levels since the US-led invasion of the country in 2003.
Last week, Iraqi security forces backed by US soldiers clashed with members of a Sunni militia, or “Awakening Council”, in the Baghdad slum of Fadhil after Iraqi security officials arrested Adil al-Mashhadani, the leader of the militia.
At least four people were killed in the clashes, and Iraqi security officials acknowledged that “hundreds” of militiamen may have escaped with their weapons.