Iraq witnesses 44 dead, 133 injured in one day

, Sept 16: At least 44 people were killed and 133 others were wounded in separate violent attacks across Iraq on Sunday, police and official sources said.

Three people were killed and 12 others were wounded when a roadside bomb exploded inside a popular cafe in the Shala area in Baghdad.

In another incident, unidentified gunmen stormed into the house of a local leader of the government-backed Sahwa militia group, killing him, his wife and two of his children in the Rashid area in southern Baghdad.

Two car bombs went off successively at a marketplace in Al-Debis area, some 25 km northwest of Kirkuk, which is about 250 km north of here, killing two people and wounding 16 others, according to a police source.

In eastern Diyala province, two farmers were shot dead in their orchard by gunmen in Abu Sayda town, some 30 km north of the provincial capital city of Baquba, which is located about 65 km northeast of Baghdad.

In a separate incident, a roadside bomb detonated near a house in Buhruz city, just south of Baquba, wounding three people.

Two people were killed and seven others wounded in a car bomb attack in the Meshatal area in southern Baghdad Sunday evening, an interior ministry source said.

At least 31 people were killed and 95 wounded across Iraq in a series of bombings, including 12 car bomb attacks, mostly in the Shiite-dominated southern provinces.

Two car bombs struck a marketplace in Hillah city, some 100 km south of the national capital Baghdad, while a third car bomb went off in an industrial area, a police source said on condition of anonymity.

The three car bombings killed a total of 18 people and wounded 35 others, the source said.

In Iraq's eastern province of Wasit, two car bombs went off outside a restaurant in the town of Hafriyah, some 60 km southeast of Baghdad, killing two people and wounding 10 others, a provincial police source said.

In another incident, two car bombs went off in succession at a parking lot in Swayra town, some 70 km southeast of Baghdad, wounding three people and left some 30 cars burned, the source said.

A roadside bomb went off in Wasit's provincial capital of Kut, some 170 km southeast of Baghdad, wounding a civilian, the source added.

Iraq, again caught in a spate of violent attacks

Elsewhere, three people were killed and 18 wounded in a roadside bomb explosion in an industrial area at the entrance of the holy Shiite city of Karbala, some 110 km south of Baghdad, a police source said.

In southern Iraq, two car bombs ripped through the city of Nasriyah, some 375 km south of Baghdad, wounding 11 people, police said.

Also in the south, a car bomb detonated in the oil-hub city of Basra, some 550 km south of Baghdad, killing three people and wounding 11 others.

In a separate incident, a civilian was killed and four wounded when a booby-trapped car went off near the convoy of Ryadh al-Adhadh, chairman of Baghdad Provincial Council, in the city's Adhamiyah district, an interior ministry source said.

Al-Adhadh escaped the blast unharmed and his convoy safely continued their way, the source said.

No group has so far claimed responsibility for the attacks.

Iraq is witnessing its worst eruption of violence in recent years, which raises fears that the country is sliding back to the full-blown civil conflict that peaked in 2006 and 2007 when monthly death toll sometimes exceeded 3,000.

IANS