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Deadly bomb blasts hit Iraq

Jul 21 2009

Deadly bomb blasts hit Iraq

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Arab World

By Agencies

The western city of Ramadi has been hit by two consecutive days of bomb blasts [AFP]

At least 13 people have been killed in a series of bombings in Baghdad, the Iraqi capital, and the western city of Ramadi, security and medical officials said.

A one-year-old baby and an eight-year-old girl were among three people who died after an explosion in a market in Baghdad's Sadr City on Tuesday.

At least 15 other people were wounded in the blast, the defence ministry said.

Another four people were killed and 31 injured in an earlier twin bomb attack in the same district in the northeast of the city.

Also in the capital, Abdel Latif Jamal Rashid, the water resources minister, escaped a bomb attack as his convoy drove through the central district of Karrada, security sources said.

At least 12 people were wounded.

Other blasts in the Bab Al-Muadha and Doura areas of the capital killed at least three people.

Ramadi emergency

In a second straight day of deadly attacks in Ramadi, three people were killed and 10 wounded in a double car bombing outside a restaurant, hospital officials and police said.

The fronts of the restaurants were severely damaged in the blasts and blood stained the ground nearby, a Reuters witness said. Streets emptied amid fears of another attack.

At least 10 people were killed on Monday, including seven police officers and a soldier, in Ramadi, the capital of Anbar province, and in the northern city of Mosul.

A state of emergency was declared after the latest attack and vehicles were banned from the city, police said.

Violence has dropped significantly in recent months, but there was a spike in attacks in the weeks before US combat troops withdrew from the centres of Iraqi towns and cities.

An estimated 437 Iraqis were killed in June, the highest death toll in 11 months, and the near daily attacks have continued in July.

Tuesday's attacks came as Nuri al-Maliki, the Iraqi prime minister, set off for Washington to meet Barack Obama, the US president.

The White House has said Obama will meet al-Maliki on Wednesday and talks will focus on the political reconciliation that is necessary for Iraq to make progress after years of war.