80 die in car bombings as Iraq tensions intensify
AT least 80 people have been killed yesterday in car bomb explosions targeting Shi’ite Muslims in Iraq, police and medics said.
More than 150 people have been killed in sectarian violence over the past week and tensions between Shi’ites, who now lead Iraq, and minority Sunni Muslims have reached their highest level since US troops pulled out in December 2011.
No group immediately claimed responsibility for the attacks.
Nine people were killed in one of two car bomb blasts in the southern oil hub Basra, a predominantly Shi’ite city, police and medics said.
In the capital Baghdad, a parked car exploded in a busy market in the mainly Shi’ite eastern district of Kamaliya, killing seven people, police said.
A further 22 people were killed in blasts in Ilaam, Diyala Bridge, al Shurta, Shula and Sadr City – all areas with a high concentration of Shi’ites.
Iraq has come under strain from the conflict in neighbouring Syria, which has drawn Sunni and Shi’ite Muslims from across the region into a proxy war.
Syrian President Bashar al Assad’s main regional ally is Shi’ite Iran, while the rebels fighting to overthrow him are supported by Sunni powers Saudi Arabia and Qatar. Iraq says it takes no sides, but leaders in Tehran and Baghdad fear Mr Assad’s demise would make way for a hostile Sunni Islamist government in Syria.