Series of Car Bombs at Iraqi Mosques Kill 17

A series of car bombs near Iraqi mosques targeting worshippers attending weekly prayers killed at least 17 people on Friday.

The blasts, which also wounded 105 people, struck within an hour of each other in the Baghdad neighbourhoods of Binook, Qahira, Zafraniyah and Jihad, as well as in an area of southern Kirkuk city.

No group immediately claimed the attacks.

In Baghdad, “four car bombs were detonated near Shiite mosques in the east and west of the capital, leaving at least 14 people dead and 35 wounded,” security and medical officials said, speaking on condition of anonymity.

And in Kirkuk, which lies 240 kilometres (150 miles) north of the capital, three people died and 70 were hurt by another car bomb targeting a mosque, provincial health chief Sadiq Omar Rasul said.

The attacks come amid a spike in violence nationwide as the country prepares for its first elections in three years — provincial polls that will be held in 12 of Iraq’s 18 provinces on April 20.