Twin car bombs kill seven in Baghdad: Police

Baghdad, June 6: At least seven people were killed and 25 wounded when bombs in two parked cars exploded in quick succession in a Shi'ite district in northeastern Baghdad today, police said.

The cars were parked by the roadside near a central square in Kadhimiya. The bombs went off about two minutes apart, police said.

The first exploded close to al-Zahra square, a commercial area in central Kadhimiya. The second bomb exploded near a parking lot, commonly used by shoppers, close to a women's jail.

Thousands of extra U.S. and Iraqi troops have been deployed in Baghdad and other areas as part of a security crackdown aimed at averting all-out sectarian civil war between majority Shi'ites and minority Sunni Arabs dominant under Saddam Hussein.

US military officials have said those forces now control about a third of Baghdad's neighbourhoods. The crackdown began in mid-February.

The number of targeted sectarian killings fell during the early stages of the crackdown but has begun to rise again, military officials say. Large-scale bombings, many blamed on Sunni Islamist al Qaeda, remain common.

REUTERS

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