Wave of Deadly Attacks Hits Baghdad

By SAM DAGHER and ALI A. NABHAN
BAGHDAD—Dozens of Iraqis were killed or wounded Tuesday in a barrage of car bombs that struck the Iraqi capital and surrounding areas on the eve of the 10th anniversary of the start of the U.S.-led invasion of the country.

Associated Press
A policeman inspects the scene of a car bomb attack in the Shiite stronghold of Sadr City, Baghdad, on Tuesday. Insurgents unleashed deadly attacks against Shiite areas in Baghdad, killing and wounding scores of people, police said.

The majority of the attacks, which numbered at least 15, involved parked car bombs detonated between 8 a.m. and 9 a.m. local time and targeting predominantly Shiite neighborhoods or Iraqi Army positions, according to an official at the Ministry of Interior.
Targets included food markets, residential neighborhoods and an early-morning gathering of day laborers in the New Baghdad district in the eastern part of the city, said the official. Another attack involved a suicide bomber detonating his charge at a military outpost in the town of Iskandariyah on the southern outskirts of Baghdad, killing two government soldiers and wounding 10, according to the official.
Iraq’s state television station al-Iraqiya said a curfew was imposed in the Iskandariyah area afterward.
The Interior Ministry official gave a preliminary overall toll from all attacks of at least 17 killed and 89 wounded. This figure was expected to rise as bombings continued into the day.

REUTERS
Iraqis examine damage to their home from a car bomb attack in Baghdad.

Citing Iraqi officials, the Associated Press reported that at least 56 people were killed and more than 200 wounded.
There was no immediate claim of responsibility for Tuesday’s bombings but they resembled previous attacks claimed by al Qaeda’s Iraqi affiliate, known as the Islamic State of Iraq. The same group claimed responsibility on Sunday for last week’s assault—with car bombs and suicide bombers—that targeted the Iraqi Ministry of Justice.

The Iraq War, a Decade Later
Ahead of the 10th anniversary of the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq, take a look back at the war through a selection of photos from 2003 to 2011.

Jerome Delay/Associated Press
Smoke rose in Baghdad March 20, 2003.

The stepped-up violence comes amid efforts by several Sunni groups including loyalists of former president Saddam Hussein to bring down the Shiite-led government in Baghdad and undo the political process ushered in after the U.S.-led invasion. Before the invasion, the Iraqi state was dominated by Mr. Hussein’s family and clan who belong to the country’s Sunni minority.
At about 10 a.m. local time Tuesday, another car bomb exploded in an area of restaurants and grocery stores that are located meters away from one of the entrances of the Green Zone, the seat of the Iraqi government and home to the British, U.S. and other embassies, according to witnesses. A large plume of black smoke billowed for about an hour from the scene of the blast. The number of casualties from this attack wasn’t immediately known.
The attack coincided with an Arab League meeting that was under way inside the Green Zone, in the presence of Belgian, German and Swiss experts, to discuss the formation of an Arab parliament, as stipulated by a summit of Arab leaders held in Baghdad last year.
Shortly afterward another car bomb exploded outside a courthouse in northern Baghdad wounding five people, according to the Ministry of Interior official.
Write to Sam Dagher at sam.dagher@wsj.com

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