Multiple Blasts Kill 20 Iraqi Citizens, Wounds 80 Others

Tehran, July 23, IRNA -- At least 20 Iraqi citizens have been killed and more than 80 others wounded in two towns south of Baghdad and also in the Iraqi city of Najaf as the people were preparing to break their fast during the holy month of Ramadan, police said. According to police sources, in the town of Mahmudiya (30 kilometers south of Baghdad), three car bombs went off killing 11 people and injuring 38 others. The first detonated in a car in a parking lot, the second in another car as police arrived at the scene and a third at the town’s police station, the police sources were quoted as saying. In Madaen, a town located 30 kilometers southeast of the Iraqi capital, two bombs killed five people and wounded 14 in a crowded market, police and hospital sources were quoted as saying. And car bombs planted in a busy trading street in Najaf, 160 kilometers south of Baghdad, killed four people and wounded 28, the Interior Ministry sources said. The multiple bomb attacks showed how deadly violence is and still common. The situation is even worsening in some places in Iraq. The US pulled its last troops out of the country seven months ago. Most of the attacks are attributed to al-Qaeda-linked insurgents, targeting Shias and their holy shrines as well as Iraqi security forces./end