Car bombings kill 22 in eastern Iraq

Residents gather at the site of a car bomb attack in the Iraqi capital, Baghdad. (File photo

More than a dozen people have been killed and nearly 40 others have been injured in three car bomb attacks at a marketplace in Iraq’s eastern province of Diyala.

An Iraqi provincial police source, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the attacks were carried out during the morning rush hour at a fruit and vegetable wholesale market in the town of Judaida al-Shat on Monday.

Twenty two people died and 39 others were wounded in the bombings.

No group has claimed responsibility for the attacks, but the bombings bear the hallmarks of al-Qaeda-linked militants in Iraq, who are seeking to destabilize the central government.

On Sunday, a total of six people were killed and 25 others wounded in shooting attacks targeting Iraqi security forces across the country.

There has recently been an upsurge in violence across Iraq, and authorities say Qatar and Saudi Arabia have been involved in some of the deadly incidents.

On June 1, the United Nations said that a total of 1,045 people were killed and nearly 2,400 others were injured in the incidents of violence across Iraq in May.

On May 30, UN Ambassador to Iraq Martin Kobler warned that “systemic violence is ready to explode at any moment.”

He also urged Iraqi political leaders to “engage immediately to pull the country out of this mayhem.”

Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki has said that militant groups and the remnants of the former Ba’athist regime are responsible for the latest wave of violence.