Bombs kill at least 26 people in Iraq

At least 26 people were killed in Iraq yesterday as insurgents set off roadside bombs and detonated explosives- packed cars in Baghdad and elsewhere, police said.

The deaths brought to 48 the number of fatalities in the last two days. Armed groups have set off multiple bombs by timer or remote control almost daily in the Iraqi capital.

Levels of violence rose to their highest in years in 2013, when nearly 8,000 civilians were killed. Security forces are battling Sunni Muslim insurgents in the western province of Anbar, where militants of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant overran the city of Falluja on January 1st.

In less than 30 minutes, three car bombs exploded in Baghdad last night targeting Shia neighbourhoods. A car bomb in the western district of al-Ammal killed four people and wounded 12, police said. In Karrada, a well-to-do Shia area, a car exploded killing two people and wounding 16. A third car blew up at the Bab al-Shargi market, killing two and wounding 10.

The explosions came on top of an earlier series of bombs, in which a further 18 people died. –(Reuters)