At least 13 killed in Baghdad bombings

GlobalPost

A series of car bomb attacks in Iraq has left at least 13 people dead and 50 wounded.

According to Reuters, at least eight people died and 30 were injured when a car bomb went off Thursday outside a market in the mainly Shia Washash district of the capital, Baghdad, while four people were killed and 20 wounded in another car bomb attack on a government building in the mainly Sunni town of Taji, 12 kilometers north of Baghdad.

Police also told the news agency that a roadside bomb attack on a police patrol in the capital’s southern Shia area of Abu Dsheer had left one person dead and wounded five others.

More from GlobalPost: Double bomb attack kills 13 at busy Baghdad market

The attacks come a day after 11 people died in two bomb attacks in the city. According to the BBC, June has been an especially bloody month in Iraq, with almost 200 people reported to have been killed since June 13 – a figure far higher than the number of casualties in May.

Most of the attacks have been blamed on Sunni militant groups – including Al Qaeda’s local affiliate, the Islamic State of Iraq – who have launched a series of bombing attacks on Shia Muslims in a bid to undermine the government of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki and trigger further sectarian fighting in the country.

More from GlobalPost: At least 15 killed in suicide attack on Shia funeral in Iraq

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