Car bombs kill at least 15 people in Iraq’s capital

BAGHDAD — A series of car bomb attacks targeting commercial areas and a restaurant killed at least 15 people Saturday in Iraq’s capital, Baghdad, authorities said.

Police officials said a car bomb went off at night in a commercial street in Al Ameen district in southeastern Baghdad, killing four people and wounding 13. Minutes later, police said another car bomb explosion near a falafel restaurant killed three people and wounded six in the capital’s Qahira neighbourhood.

A third car bomb exploded in a commercial street in western Baghdad, killing four persons and wounding 14 others, police said.

Later, a car bomb in a commercial area of Baghdad’s northwestern neighbourhood of Shula killed four people and wounded nine, police said.

Health officials confirmed the casualty figures. All officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorised to release the information to reporters.

No one immediately claimed responsibility for the attacks, but they bore the hallmarks of an Al Qaeda breakaway group that frequently uses car bombs and suicide attacks to target public areas in their bid to undermine confidence in the government.

Iraq has seen a spike in violence since last April, with the death toll climbing to its highest levels since the worst of the country’s sectarian bloodletting in 2006-2008.