A series of car bombings and attacks targeting mostly Shia-dominated areas in central and southern Iraq Monday killed 86 people and injured more than 200, security officials said. Most attacks targeted crowded market areas in Baghdad, including the Sadr City, Habibiya, Bayaa, al-Horreya, Risala and al-Shaab neighbourhoods. Tight security was imposed in the capital, leading to long lines at checkpoints as security personnel searched cars for explosives.
In southern Iraq, two car bombs exploded near a parking lot in Kut. Bombs also detonated in a popular market in the city of Basra and the province of Samawa. All three areas are dominated by Shias The Interior Ministry accused al Qaeda militants of being responsible for the violence.
It said the escalating attacks were aimed at "making people feel frustrated, feeding the sectarian divide and paralysing life in the country." "The country faces an open war waged by bloody sectarian forces that aim to plunge the country into chaos and reproduce the civil war," the ministry said in a statement. In the ethnically mixed city of Baquba, 60 kilometres north of Baghdad, five civilians and nine security members were killed in blasts and attacks by gunmen, police said. Meanwhile, 10 militants were killed when army and police forces launched an operation to track down armed groups in Tikrit city, 170 kilometres north of Baghdad.
Iraq has recently seen a surge in attacks, raising fears of a return to the sectarian violence that pushed the country to the brink of civil war in 2006 and 2007. "I am deeply concerned about the heightened level of violence, which carries the danger that the country falls back into sectarian strife," UN envoy to Iraq Gyorgy Busztin said. "Iraq is bleeding from random violence, which sadly reached record heights during the holy month of Ramadan," Busztin said, urging political leaders to take immediate and decisive action to stop the bloodshed. The number of attacks has increased this month as militants usually scale up their bombings during Ramadan.
Hundreds of prisoners escaped last week when al Qaeda militants attacked the Abu Ghraib prison in Baghdad and the al-Hout jail in al-Taji, an area north of the capital. Leaders of al Qaeda and other terrorist groups are housed in both facilities. Iraq has been gripped by political and sectarian tensions with Sunnis staging frequent protests in the past six months against Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki's Shia-led government. The protesters are seeking a repeal of laws they said are being used against them by al-Maliki.
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