Deadly blasts hit Iraqi cities

10/08/2009| IslamWeb

At least 41 people have been killed in separate bomb attacks near the northern city of Mosul and in the Iraqi capital, Baghdad, officials have said.

In the deadliest attack, two lorries packed with explosives blew up in the predominantly Shia village of Khazna, 20km north of Mosul, killing 25 people and wounding 70 others, police said.

The blast also leveled more than 30 houses.

Meanwhile, in the Amil district of western Baghdad, seven people were killed and 46 others injured after a car bomb exploded near a gathering of day-laborers waiting on the street.

In a separate attack in the nearby Shurta district of western Baghdad, another car bomb killed nine people and wounded 40 others.

Barriers dismantled

The attacks come a day after Iraqi forces began dismantling a number of protective barriers around Baghdad.

The government had ordered the concrete blast walls removed in an effort to restore a sense of normalcy and assure Iraqis that the security situation was improving in the country.

It announced last week that the barriers, which were put in place to protect markets, banks, buildings and major roads from suicide bombers and other attacks, would be dismantled within 40 days.

PHOTO CAPTION

People gather at the site of a bomb hidden in a trash exploded in the Amil neighborhood in Baghdad, Iraq, Monday, Aug 10, 2009.

Al-Jazeera