10 die in another day of carnage in Iraq

Ten people have been killed and several others wounded in two bomb attacks in Iraq, police and medical sources say.

The first attack was carried out in the town of Taji, about 20 kilometers (12 miles) north of the capital Baghdad, on Monday, when a bomb went off in a restaurant. Seven people including two women and a 12-year-old child died in the bombing.

In Fallujah, west of Baghdad, three people were killed in another bomb attack. Nineteen people were wounded.

On Sunday, over 50 people lost their lives and dozens more sustained injuries in a day of carnage across Iraq.

Other attacks were carried out in the cities of Hillah, Madian, Aziziyah, Mahmudiyah, Nasiriyah, Tuz Khurmatu, Najaf, Mosul, Basra and the neighborhood of al-Ameen in southeastern Baghdad. Reports said most of the bombings hit mainly Shia populated areas.

No group immediately claimed responsibility for the bombings, but al-Qaeda-linked militant groups, which seek to destabilize the central government of Iraq, frequently carry out such coordinated attacks.

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

The United Nations says a total of 1,045 people were killed and nearly 2,400 were injured in violent incidents in Iraq in the month of 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.