Bomb, gun attacks kill 107 in Iraq

At least 107 people were killed in bomb and gun attacks in Iraq on Monday after 20 died in blasts the previous day in a coordinated surge of violence against mostly Shiite Muslim targets.

The bloodshed coincided with an intensifying of the conflict in neighboring Syria.

As well as the dozens of deaths at least 223 people were wounded in bomb attacks in Shiite areas of Baghdad, the Shiite town of Taji to the north, the mixed northern city of Kirkuk and elsewhere, hospital and police sources said, making it one of Iraq's bloodiest days in weeks.

Residents gather at the site of a car bomb attack in Mahmudiya, 30 km south of Baghdad, on Monday. Mohammed Ameen / Reuters

No group has claimed responsibility for the latest wave of assaults but a senior Iraqi security official blamed the local wing of al-Qaida, made up of Sunni Muslim militants hostile to the Shiite-led government, which is friendly with Iran.

"Recent attacks are a clear message that al-Qaida in Iraq is determined to spark a bloody sectarian war," the official said, asking not to be named.

"With what's going on in Syria, these attacks should be taken seriously as a potential threat to our country. Al-Qaida is trying to push Iraq to the verge of Shiite-Sunni war," he said. "They want things to be as bad as in Syria."

The last two days of bombings and shootings shattered a two-week lull in violence in the run-up to the Muslim holy fasting month of Ramadan, which started in Iraq on Saturday.

Sectarian slaughter peaked in 2006-07 but deadly attacks have persisted while political tensions among Iraq's main Shiite, Sunni and Kurdish factions have mounted since US troops left the country in December.

Resurging violence

"I heard explosions in the distance so I left my house and I saw a car outside," said 40-year-old Taji resident Abu Mohammed, who added that police inspectors concluded the vehicle was a car bomb.

"We asked the neighbors to leave their houses, but when they were leaving, the bomb went off."

Abu Mohammed said he saw an elderly woman carrying a newborn baby die, as well as the policeman who first concluded the car was packed with explosives.

An AFP reporter at the scene said a row of houses was destroyed, and residents were rummaging through the rubble in search of victims and their belongings.

In Baghdad, meanwhile, a car bomb outside a government office responsible for producing identity papers in the Shiite bastion of Sadr City killed at least 12 people and wounded 22 others, security and medical officials said.

"This attack is a terrible crime against humanity, because they did it during Ramadan, while people are fasting," said one elderly witness who declined to be identified.

An AFP journalist said eight nearby cars were badly burned and many of the victims of the earlier attack could not be identified because their papers were inside the offices that were targeted.

Two other explosions in the Baghdad neighborhoods of Husseiniyah and Yarmuk killed at least three people and left 21 others wounded, while a car bomb in the town of Tarmiyah, just north of Baghdad, injured nine people, officials said.

AFP-Reuters-Xinhua