Baghdad car bombing kills at least 25, wounds 115; Kirkuk bombing kills at least 6

Above: Helicopters circle over Baghdad after today's bombing. Left: Aftermath of today's bombing in Kirkuk.

Baghdad car bomb kills 25

A parked car bomb killed 25 people and wounded 115 when it exploded near an intersection in central Baghdad on Thursday and police said the toll was likely to rise as many bodies were still buried under rubble.

Bodies lay strewn around the street after the blast, which smashed three buildings into piles of masonry and concrete. It was at least the fourth to hit the predominantly Shi'ite district of Karrada this week...

Residents bundled victims into the boots of cars and the back of pick-up trucks and vans to rush them to hospital as police tried to evacuate stunned residents.

Read the rest at the Scotsman

Bomb Kills 21 in Shiite Area of Baghdad

A parked car bomb exploded near a market in a predominantly Shiite area in Baghdad on Thursday, killing at least 21 people and wounding more than 60, police said...

Smoke billowed into the sky after the thunderous explosion, which also left nine cars burned and set a three-story building ablaze in the busy Karradah shopping district...

It was the deadliest in a series of attacks nationwide Thursday that killed at least 29 people.

Read the rest at the Guardian

Twenty killed in Baghdad car bombing - police

Twenty people were killed and 60 wounded when a parked car bomb exploded near an intersection in the central Baghdad district of Karrada on Thursday, Iraqi police said.

At least one building and several cars were ablaze after the blast in the predominantly Shi'ite district.

A Reuters cameraman said people were carrying bodies from the blast site and putting many of the wounded in vans to take them to hospital. Short bursts of gunfire could be heard soon after the explosion.

Read the rest at Reuters/Alternet

Car bomb attack in northern Iraq kills six

A car bomb exploded in front of two popular restaurants in the commercial heart of the disputed Iraqi oil city of Kirkuk on Thursday, killing at least six people, police said.

Lieutenant Akram Abdullah said the blast erupted at around 6:10 pm (1410 GMT) in the Al-Jumuriyah district, known for its restaurants and health clinics, at a time when the Abdallah and Sulaimaniyah eateries were crowded....

There was no immediate word on who may have planted the bomb, but such attacks on civilian targets have in the past been blamed on Arab insurgents trying to stir strife in the ethnically-mixed city.

Kurdish leaders want Kirkuk, a hub of Iraq’s oil industry, to become part of their autonomous northern region, an idea fiercely opposed by the city’s Arab and Turkoman minorities.

Read the rest at Khaleej Times