A series of bombs killed at least 10 people in mostly Shi'ite Muslim provinces of Iraq yesterday ahead of the Muslim feast Eid al-Adha, police sources said.
Altogether 11 bombs were detonated by remote control. The deadliest attack took place in the city of Hilla, 100 km (60 miles) south of Baghdad, when two car bombs blew up in quick succession, killing at least five people, police said.
It was not immediately clear who was behind the attacks, which appeared to be coordinated, but Sunni Islamist and other insurgents, including al Qaeda, have been regaining ground this year.
More than 6000 people have been killed in violence in 2013, reversing a decline in sectarian bloodshed that climaxed in 2006-07.
In Kut, four car bombs exploded separately, one of them near a primary school and one near a restaurant, killing at least two people and wounding 31, police said.
Leaflets signed by al Qaeda's Iraqi affiliate have been distributed on the streets of the Baquba in recent days, telling residents not to send their children to school or they will be killed, residents and police said.
Last week, a suicide bomber drove a truck packed with explosives into the playground of a primary school in northern Iraq and blew himself up, killing 14 children and their headmaster.
"The surge of violence in Iraq spares no one and no place," said a statement from the United Nations following that attack.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article