Blasts in Iraq

Car bombs and explosions killed eight people, including a policeman and two teenage boys, in and around Baghdad on Sunday, the latest in a spate of attacks indicating an apparent spike in unrest. One car bomb on Sunday targeted a police patrol in Al-Alam neighbourhood of southwest Baghdad killing two people, one of them a policemen, and wounding eight people, among them four police, the official said. Another vehicle packed with explosives was detonated on Abu Nawas street, on the banks of the Tigris river which snakes through the capital, leaving one person dead and six people wounded. And in the mostly Shiite north Baghdad neighbourhood of Kadhimiyah, a car bomb struck a bus carrying Iranian pilgrims, according to the interior ministry official. One of the pilgrims was killed and eight were wounded in the 10:00 am (0700 GMT) blast. The pilgrims were in Iraq for Arbaeen commemoration ceremonies, which mark 40 days since the anniversary of the death of Imam Hussein, a cleric who is revered by Shiite Muslims. In a separate car bomb attack, four people were wounded, including a policeman, in the commercial Karrada district in the centre of Baghdad. And on a main road in the town of Taji, 25 kilometres (15 miles) north of the capital, a bomb-filled vehicle was blown up, killing two people and wounding four. Also north of Baghdad, two teenage boys were killed when a roadside bomb targeting an anti-Qaeda Sunni militiaman exploded in the town of Tarmiyah, police First Lieutenant Nashat Sarhan said. The boys, aged 13 and 14, were on their way to school when the bomb exploded. The militiaman, a member of the Sahwa (Awakening) forces that turned against Al-Qaeda and sided with the US military from late 2006, was unharmed. Violence has dropped dramatically across Iraq since its peak in 2006 and 2007 but attacks remain common. Blasts in the past week, which included suicide bombs, killed 116 people and wounded scores more. They targeted security force members and Shiite pilgrims ahead of major commemoration ceremonies and struck in the cities of Tikrit, Baquba, Baghdad and Karbala. By comparison, a total of 151 people were killed throughout December. The apparent spike in violence comes just a month after Maliki named his new cabinet, ending a protracted political stalemate which followed elections in March. He has yet to appoint ministers charged with the interior, defence or national security portfolios, however, and currently holds interim responsibility for the entire Iraqi security apparatus.