Two blasts hit Baghdad's poor Shiite district of Sadr City, killing six people and wounding 13, according to police. Associated Press journalists on the scene shortly after one of the bombings saw black smoke rising as ambulances rushed to the scene, sirens wailing. Firefighters struggled to extinguish the fire as security forces sealed off the area.
A short while later, a car bomb exploded in a commercial street in the capital's eastern district of Jamila, killing three people and wounding 10. Police said a fourth car bomb went off near a traffic police office in eastern Baghdad, killing four people and wounding seven. Other blasts struck commercial areas in downtown Baghdad, in the eastern districts of Ur and Maamil, and in the southern Dora district. Those attacks together killed 15 and wounded 45, according to police.
Yet another parked car bomb exploded in the afternoon in Balad, a largely Shiite town surrounded by Sunni areas some 80 kilometers north of the capital. That blast killed six and wounded 17, police said.
