Three blasts, including a suicide attack near an army base, killed at least 17 people across Baghdad yesterday, the latest violence to feed worries that Iraq’s unrest may slide into widespread sectarian confrontation.

Insurgent bombers are seeking to enflame tensions as Shi’ite Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki faces increasing pressure from mass Sunni Muslim protests and a separate dispute with the country’s autonomous Kurdistan region over the control of oil.

The most deadly of yesterday’s explosions took place in Taji, 20 kilometres north of Baghdad, where asuicide bomber driving a car packed with explosives detonated his bomb near an army base, killing at least seven people and wounding 24.

Another parked car bomb exploded in a crowded market in the Shi’ite neighbour-hood of Shula, northwestern Baghdad, killing five.

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