At least 50 people were killed and almost 100 wounded by a series of bombs in Iraq’s capital Baghdad on Saturday.
As night fell, a suicide bomber detonated a car at a police checkpoint in the mainly-Shia area of Khadamiya in the north of the capital. At least 12 people, including four police officers, were killed and 20 injured.
At almost the same time, a car bomb exploded next to a marketplace in the mainly-Shiite neighborhood of Shula in northwestern Baghdad. As authorities blocked off the road, another suicide car bomber drove his vehicle into the traffic.
At least 25 people were killed in the double attack and wounded at least 52.
A suicide bomber in Mishahda killed at least 14 people and injured 40 others.
The attacks came as the Islamic State pressed its offensive in Anbar Province to the west of Baghdad. One provincial official said Saturday that the jihadists now hold 80% of the province, including Fallujah and parts of the provincial capital Ramadi.
(Featured Photo: Aftermath of car bomb in Baghdad, August 7, 2014)