Dozens killed in Baghdad blasts

At least 28 killed, including members of bridal party, after explosions strike two neighbourhoods in capital.

There are growing fears that Iraq is slipping back into all-out sectarian fighting [AFP]

Multiple bomb blasts have struck two neighbourhoods in Iraq's capital Baghdad, killing at least 28 people, including several members of a wedding party. Wednesday's deadliest attack targeted a bridal party in the southern Jihad district, killing 16 people and wounding 42 others, police said. Many of those killed were cheering a bride passing by when the blast went off, according to authorities. Jihad district was one of the earliest flashpoints in Baghdad's descent into sectarian unrest in the years following the 2003 US-led invasion. Many of Jihad's Sunni residents earlier this year received threatening leaflets from a Shia armed group warning them to leave. Another 12 people were killed and 31 were wounded when a roadside bomb and then a car bomb exploded near a market in the western Baghdad district of Abu Ghraib, police said. Hospital officials confirmed the casualties. All officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorised to release the information. There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attacks. Growing concerns The increasing wave of violence in the country is raising fears that Iraq is slipping back towards all-out sectarian fighting like that which nearly tore the country apart in 2006 and 2007. "We have major concerns. Because what is going on now is the same that led to what happened in 2006,'' Adnan Faihan, the head of the political bureau of the Shia armed group Asaib Ahl al-Haq, said. Also on Wednesday, Iraqi officials raised the death toll from attacks the previous day that shook Baghdad and towns north of the capital to 28. Police said the deadliest of Tuesday's attacks struck the southern Dora neighborhood, where back-to-back bombings killed nine people and wounded 10. Bombs in the eastern neighborhood of Sadr City and in the northern Shaab area killed 12 and wounded 33. Blasts and shootings in Tarmiyah and Mosul killed seven other people.

Source: Agencies