Iraq Endures Deadliest Day In A Month As Bombings Claim 30 Lives

Sunday was Iraq’s deadliest day in almost a month, with at least 30 people killed and scores more wounded in a series of bombings that were predominantly aimed at the country’s majority Shiite Muslim community. A Shiite shrine was one of the targets of the blasts, which came after weeks of relative stability in the Middle Eastern nation.

Baghdad alone was rocked by seven explosions within 24 hours, according to police in the Iraqi capital. Twenty people were killed in the attacks while at least 37 others were wounded. The locations of the bombings varied, with the city center and the Baghdad neighborhoods of al-Mashahda and al-Amel all targeted.

Later on Sunday, a car bomb was detonated close to a Shiite shrine in al-Madaan, killing four people and wounding 19 others including four Iranians.

And a further six people were killed in the Shiite-dominated city of Kut; that figure included three Iraqi police officers who lost their lives in a car bomb explosion at a police checkpoint.

The fresh wave of violence arrives just a few days after dozens of prisoners escaped from jail in Tikrit, 160 miles north of Baghdad in the northern Iraqi city of Tikrit. At the time, authorities confirmed that many of the escapees were al Qaeda members on death row.

The jailbreak occurred after two car bombs were detonated at the gates of Tasfirat jail by armed gunmen. The bombings immediately led to clashes between security forces and inmates, confrontations that saw ten security staff and five prisoners lose their lives.

US troops completed their withdrawal from Iraq in December.