Bombings across Baghdad kill 29, wound 81

BAGHDAD (AP) — A series of bombings Sunday across the Iraqi capital, Baghdad, killed at least 29 people and wounded 81, police officials said.

No one immediately claimed responsibility for the attacks. However, the Islamic State militant group is often behind assaults on checkpoints and other locations across the capital as it seeks to challenge Iraqi security forces and Iraq’s Shiite-led government amid intensifying battles in northern and western Iraq.

The deadliest attack on Sunday took place in the northern Shaab neighborhood when a man wearing an explosive vest detonated himself in a crowded market, killing nine people and wounding 25.

Earlier Sunday, in Baghdad’s Khazimiyah district, a suicide car bombing attacked the Aden checkpoint killing eight people, including five civilians, and wounding 23.

Also in the Banook district, six people were killed and 15 injured in a car bombing, police said.

In Baghdad’s al-Askan district, a car bomb killed at least four people and wounded 11 on a commercial street as people gathered after sunset to break their daily fast for the Islamic holy month of Ramadan.

Police also said a roadside bomb on a commercial street in Baghdad’s al-Amal neighborhood killed two people and wounded seven.

Medical officials corroborated the casualty figures. All spoke on condition of anonymity as they are not authorized to brief journalists.