38 dead in Baghdad car blasts

A SERIES of car bomb attacks in Iraq’s capital killed 38 people in Shiite areas Saturday, authorities said, after Islamic militants killed a journalist working for a local television network in a Sunni province.

The attacks come as Iraq faces its greatest challenge since the 2011 withdraw of U.S. troops, as militants from the Islamic State group now hold vast swaths of the country and neighboring Syria.

Police officials said the first bombing happened Saturday night when a suicide bomber rammed his explosive-laden car into a security checkpoint in Baghdad’s northern district of Khazimiyah, killing 13 people — including three police officers — and wounding 28.

The second car bombing, targeting a commercial street in Shula district in northwestern Baghdad, killed seven people and wounded 18, police said.

The blast damaged several shops and cars.

Also in Shula, police said a suicide car bomb attack on a security checkpoint killed 18 people and wounded dozens of others.

Nobody claimed responsibility for the attacks, yet Sunni insurgents frequently target Shiite populations they deem as being heretics.

That includes the Islamic State group, which now holds one-third of the country in its sway.

Meanwhile, the U.S. military said Saturday it launched an air strike north of the town of Tal Afar, hitting a small Islamic State fighting unit and destroying an armed vehicle.

The U.S. military also said it conducted multiple airdrops Friday near the northern town of Beiji to resupply Iraqi security forces operating there.