33 dead, over 160 injured in Iraq bombings in the week before first election since US withdraw
A wave of bombings across Iraq have killed at least 33 people and wounded more than 160 others, officials said, just days before the country’s first elections since US troops withdrew.
Most of the deadly attacks on Monday morning reported by police officials were bombings, which killed several people in Baghdad, in Fallujah, the northern city of Kirkuk and towns south of the capital.
photo/MSGT JAMES M. BOWMAN, USAF
A total of 14 car bombs and three roadside bombs struck seven cities including Baghdad, security and medical officials said on Monday, updating an earlier toll.
Hospital officials confirmed the casualty tolls.
“This place has not been targeted before and today there was a car bomb at this check point, according to a police source”.
Officials said that vehicles packed with explosives were detonated in the northern disputed cities of Kirkuk and Tuz Khurmatu, the central city of Samarra, and the cities of Hilla and Nassriyah south of Baghdad.
The attacks come less than a week before Iraqis in much of the country are scheduled to vote in the country’s first elections since the 2011 US troop withdrawal. The vote will be a key test of security forces’ ability to keep voters safe.
