BAGHDAD // A series of car bombings in the capital, an explosion at a market and a suicide assault in a northern city killed at least 62 people across Iraq on Sunday, the latest in a wave of attacks sweeping the country.
The bombs in Baghdad, placed in parked cars and detonated over a half-hour period, targeted commercial areas and parking lots, killing 42 people, police said.
The deadliest blasts struck in the south-eastern Nahrwan district, where two car bombs exploded simultaneously, killing seven and wounding 15, while two other explosions in the northern Shaab and southern Abu Dshir neighbourhoods each killed six people, officials said.
All of the car bombings in Baghdad struck Shiite areas.
Meanwhile, in the northern city of Mosul, a suicide bomber drove his explosives-laden car into a group of soldiers as they were sealing off a street leading to a bank where troops were receiving salaries, killing 14. At least 30 people were wounded.
Also in Mosul, police said gunmen shot dead two off-duty soldiers in a drive-by shooting.
In the afternoon, a bomb blast killed four people and wounded 11 at an outdoor market in the Sunni town of Tarmiyah, 50 kilometres north of Baghdad, authorities said.
There was no immediate claim for Sunday’s blasts, which were the deadliest single-day series of assaults since October 5, when 75 people were killed in violence.
Violence has spiked in Iraq since April, when the pace of killing reached levels unseen since 2008.
