BAGHDAD — In another wave of bombing across Iraq on Sunday, insurgents targeted Shiite neighborhoods and security forces, officials said, killing at least 26.
Sunday’s attacks were the latest instance in which insurgents coordinated attacks in multiple cities in a single day, apparently intending to rekindle widespread sectarian conflict and undermine public confidence in the beleaguered government.
The frequent bombings has raised concerns about the government’s ability to contain the violence, since the last American troops in December after more than eight years of occupation and civil war that upended Saddam Hussein’s Sunni-led minority power base and empowered Iraq’s long-repressed Shiite majority.
The deadliest attack on Sunday came in Taji, a former Al Qaeda stronghold north of Baghdad, where three explosive-rigged cars went off within minutes of each other. Police said eight people died and 28 were injured in the back-to-back early morning explosions.
In all, at least 82 people were wounded in attacks that stretched from the restive but oil-rich city of Kirkuk in Iraq’s north to the southern Shiite town of Kut.
No one immediately claimed responsibility for the violence, but car bombs are a hallmark of Al Qaeda. The network has vowed to take back areas of the country, like Taji, from which the Sunni insurgent network was pushed before American troops withdrew.
Shortly after the Taji attacks, police said a suicide bomber set off his explosives-packed car in the Shiite neighborhood of Shula in northwest Baghdad. One person was killed and seven wounded. Police could not immediately identify the target.
Within an hour, another suicide bomber drove a minibus into a security checkpoint in Kut, about 100 miles southeast of Baghdad. Three officers were killed and five wounded, Maj. Gen. Hussein Abdul-Hadi Mahbob said.
And in Iraq’s north, another officer was killed when security forces were trying to defuse a car bomb parked on the main highway between the cities of Kirkuk and Tuz Khormato, the Kirkuk police chief Brig. Gen. Sarhad Qadir said. A second officer was wounded in the explosion, Mr. Qadir said. Kirkuk is about 180 miles north of Baghdad.
At about 10:30 a.m., another parked car bomb went off next to a bus carrying Iranian pilgrims in the town of Madain, killing three Iraqis and injuring 11 others included seven Iranians, another police officer and health official said. Madain is mainly Sunni area 12 miles southeast of Baghdad.
In Balad Ruz, 45 miles northeast of Baghdad, a parked car bomb targeted a passing police patrol, killing two officers and injuring seven others, a police officer and health official said. And in the nearby town of Khan Bani Saad, nine miles northeast of Baghdad, yet another parked car bomb exploded near a market and killed one civilian and injured nine others, they added.
Two Iraqi soldiers were killed in the town of Tarmiyah, 30 miles north of Baghdad, when their patrol hit a roadside bomb, another police officer and health official said. Six other people, including four civilians were wounded.
And in Baghdad, another parked car bomb went off next to a police patrol, killing an officer and a civilian, other officials said. Eight other people were injured.
Health officials in Taji, Tarmiyah and Baghdad confirmed the casualties.
Violence has dropped since the height of Iraq’s bloodshed a few years ago, but Iraqi forces have failed to stop the attacks that continue to claim lives almost daily.
Sunday’s attacks were the latest instance in which insurgents coordinated attacks in multiple cities in a single day, apparently intending to rekindle widespread sectarian conflict and undermine public confidence in the beleaguered government.
The frequent bombings has raised concerns about the government’s ability to contain the violence, since the last American troops in December after more than eight years of occupation and civil war that upended Saddam Hussein’s Sunni-led minority power base and empowered Iraq’s long-repressed Shiite majority.
The deadliest attack on Sunday came in Taji, a former Al Qaeda stronghold north of Baghdad, where three explosive-rigged cars went off within minutes of each other. Police said eight people died and 28 were injured in the back-to-back early morning explosions.
In all, at least 82 people were wounded in attacks that stretched from the restive but oil-rich city of Kirkuk in Iraq’s north to the southern Shiite town of Kut.
No one immediately claimed responsibility for the violence, but car bombs are a hallmark of Al Qaeda. The network has vowed to take back areas of the country, like Taji, from which the Sunni insurgent network was pushed before American troops withdrew.
Shortly after the Taji attacks, police said a suicide bomber set off his explosives-packed car in the Shiite neighborhood of Shula in northwest Baghdad. One person was killed and seven wounded. Police could not immediately identify the target.
Within an hour, another suicide bomber drove a minibus into a security checkpoint in Kut, about 100 miles southeast of Baghdad. Three officers were killed and five wounded, Maj. Gen. Hussein Abdul-Hadi Mahbob said.
And in Iraq’s north, another officer was killed when security forces were trying to defuse a car bomb parked on the main highway between the cities of Kirkuk and Tuz Khormato, the Kirkuk police chief Brig. Gen. Sarhad Qadir said. A second officer was wounded in the explosion, Mr. Qadir said. Kirkuk is about 180 miles north of Baghdad.
At about 10:30 a.m., another parked car bomb went off next to a bus carrying Iranian pilgrims in the town of Madain, killing three Iraqis and injuring 11 others included seven Iranians, another police officer and health official said. Madain is mainly Sunni area 12 miles southeast of Baghdad.
In Balad Ruz, 45 miles northeast of Baghdad, a parked car bomb targeted a passing police patrol, killing two officers and injuring seven others, a police officer and health official said. And in the nearby town of Khan Bani Saad, nine miles northeast of Baghdad, yet another parked car bomb exploded near a market and killed one civilian and injured nine others, they added.
Two Iraqi soldiers were killed in the town of Tarmiyah, 30 miles north of Baghdad, when their patrol hit a roadside bomb, another police officer and health official said. Six other people, including four civilians were wounded.
And in Baghdad, another parked car bomb went off next to a police patrol, killing an officer and a civilian, other officials said. Eight other people were injured.
Health officials in Taji, Tarmiyah and Baghdad confirmed the casualties.
Violence has dropped since the height of Iraq’s bloodshed a few years ago, but Iraqi forces have failed to stop the attacks that continue to claim lives almost daily.