BAGHDAD (AP) – A car bomb parked near an outdoor market in a busy commercial area in Baghdad killed at least 10 civilians on Monday while attacks elsewhere in and north of the Iraqi capital killed 5 more people, officials said.
The pick-up truck, loaded with vegetables and fruits, was parked in the southwestern, Shiite-dominated Amil neighborhood in Baghdad when it went off, a police officer said. The explosion also wounded at least 25 civilians and damaged about 20 cars, he added.
A bomb also went off in a parking lot in Baghdad’s southeastern suburb of Jisr Diyala, killing three civilians and wounding nine, another police officer said. Two other civilians were killed and seven were wounded in a bomb explosion in a market in the town of Taji, 20 kilometers (12 miles) north of the Iraqi capital, police added.
A medical official confirmed the casualty figures. All officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to talk to the media.
The attack comes as Iraqi government forces and allied Shiite and Sunni fighters, backed by airstrikes from the U.S.-led international coalition, are battling Islamic State militants to retake key cities and territory in northern and western Iraq.
In its blitz last year, the extremist group captured large swaths of land in the country’s north and west, along with nearly a third of neighboring Syria. The IS offensive plunged Iraq into its worst crisis since the 2011 U.S. troops withdrawal.
No group immediately claimed responsibility for Monday’s bombings. Iraq sees near-daily attacks, mainly targeting the country’s Shiite majority and security forces – attacks that are claimed by the Islamic State group.
___
Associated Press writer Murtada Faraj contributed to this report from Baghdad.