Iraq bomb attacks kill at least 30, 40 more dead in Libya clashes

BAGHDAD/BENGHAZI: Car bomb attacks in Baghdad and the Iraqi province of Diyala, mostly claimed by the Islamic State jihadist group, have killed at least 30 people, police and medical sources said on Wednesday.

The deadliest of the attacks was in the Iraqi capital’s eastern district of Baghdad al-Jadida, a predominantly Shia area that has been one of the most targeted by car bombs in recent years.

At least 19 people were killed and 43 wounded when a car bomb exploded near a market there on Tuesday, a police colonel and hospital sources said.

Another four people were killed and 10 wounded in a similar attack in the southern neighbourhood of Zafaraniya.

The IS has claimed responsibility for both attacks, saying they had targeted Shiite militiamen, a claim it often makes even when most of the victims are civilians.

Meanwhile, at least 40 people were killed in a week of ethnic clashes in southern Libya between rival gunmen from the Toubou and Tuareg minorities, a local official said.

The latest fighting centred on the oasis city of Sabha, the largest in the Libyan Sahara, the official said. Hundreds of families have been displaced, he added.

The Toubou, who mainly live in the southeast straddling the border with neighbouring Chad, were heavily discriminated against under dictator Moamer Kadhafi and fought in the 2011 uprising that overthrew him.