Pair of roadside bombs explode in Baghdad market

Published on 23/06/2012 02:11

AT LEAST 13 people have been killed and more than 100 wounded after two roadside bombs exploded in quick succession in a crowded Baghdad market, in the latest attack targeting Shiite Muslims this month.

A wave of bombings in June, against mainly Shiite pilgrims and shrines, has killed more than 130 people and fuelled fears that Iraq could slip back into the kind of sectarian bloodletting last seen at its peak in 2006-7.

Tensions have run high as Shiite, Sunni and Kurdish political factions vie for power.

The first explosion yesterday struck Husseiniya, a market in a mainly Shiite area on the outskirts of the Iraqi capital, where people were shopping for groceries and other goods.

The second blast followed soon afterwards as security forces and civilians gathered to tend to the casualties from the first.