A wave of violence killed 111 people across Iraq yesterday, the country’s deadliest day in two and a half years, after Al-Qaeda warned it would seek to retake territory and mount new attacks.
Officials said at least 235 people were wounded in 28 different attacks launched in 19 cities, shattering a relative calm which had held in the lead-up to the start on Saturday of the holy Muslim fasting month of Ramadan.
The violence drew condemnation from the United Nations special envoy to Iraq, the country’s Parliament speaker, rights group Amnesty International and neighbouring Iran.
In yesterday’s deadliest attack – a string of roadside bombs and a car bomb followed by a suicide attack targeting emergency responders in the town of Taji – at least 42 people were killed and 40 wounded, according to medical officials.
“I heard explosions in the distance so I left my house and I saw a car outside,” said 40-year-old Taji resident Abu Mohammed, who added that police inspectors concluded the vehicle was a car bomb.
“We asked the neighbours to leave their houses, but when they were leaving, the bomb went off.”
Abu Mohammed said he witnessed the deaths of an elderly woman carrying a newborn baby and of the policeman who had first concluded the car was packed with explosives.
An AFP reporter at the scene said a row of houses were completely destroyed, and residents were rummaging through the rubble in search of victims and their belongings.
In Baghdad, meanwhile, a car bomb outside a government office responsible for producing identity papers in the Shiite bastion of Sadr City killed at least 12 people and wounded 33 others, security and medical officials said.