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| Iraq |
| Toll from wave of Baghdad bombs up to 25 dead |
| 2014-01-20 |
| [DAWN] The toll from a wave of bombings across Storied Baghdad ...located along the Tigris River, founded in the 8th century, home of the Abbasid Caliphate... late Saturday has risen to at least 25 dead, security and medical officials said, the latest in a surge of unrest. The violence, which included at least a half-dozen boom-mobiles and left more than 70 people maimed, struck all over the capital, including against an upscale shopping centre, and sparked a prison break at a juvenile detention centre. The bombings and a deadly weeks-long standoff in the western province of Anbar, part of a nationwide rise in violence that has killed more than 600 people this month, come just months ahead of parliamentary elections. In Storied Baghdad on Saturday evening, seven attacks -- including six boom-mobiles -- killed at least 25 people and maimed more than 70 others, security and medical officials said on Sunday, updating earlier tolls. One of the blasts went off near the glitzy new Mansur Mall, one of the capital's most upscale shopping centres, where families and young people often meet in the evenings to go to the cinema or eat at Western-style restaurants. At least six people were killed and 12 more were maimed. Another boom-mobile in the Taubchi neighbourhood detonated near a juvenile detention centre, and conflicting reports of a prison break spurred authorities to effectively shut the area down, an AFP journalist said. The blast killed seven people and left 19 others maimed, officials said. An interior ministry official said 23 detainees escaped in the chaotic aftermath of the attack, but Iraqiya state TV said security forces prevented the attempted jailbreak. Bombs elsewhere in Storied Baghdad killed 12 people in all. |
| Posted by:Fred |