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Multiple bomb blasts leave ten civilians dead in, around Iraq's Baghdad

Saturday, 05 November 2016 4:00 PM [ Last Update: Saturday, 05 November 2016 4:08 PM ]

Iraqi children and teenagers gather by wreckage at the site of a car bomb that exploded the previous night in Baghdad's Hurriyah neighborhood on October 31, 2016. (Photo by AFP)

At least 10 people have been killed and 37 others wounded in a series of bomb explosions that ripped through residential neighborhoods in and around the Iraqi capital, Baghdad, security and medical officials say.

A security source, speaking on condition of anonymity, said three people lost their lives and nine others sustained injuries when an improvised explosive device went off close to a market popular with mechanics in Sheikh Omar neighborhood of central Baghdad on Saturday.

Other bomb attacks struck the southern al-Obaidi and al-Rashid neighborhoods plus the town of Abu Ghraib, located some 25 kilometers west of Baghdad.

There were no immediate claims of responsibility for the acts of violence. However, Iraqi authorities usually blame such attacks on the Daesh Takfiri group.

The United Nations Assistance Mission for Iraq (UNAMI) says a total of 1,792 Iraqis were killed and 1,358 others injured in acts of terrorism, violence and armed conflict in October.

According to the UN mission, the number of civilian fatalities stood at 1,120. Violence also claimed the lives of 672 members of the Iraqi security forces. A great portion of the fatalities was recorded in the capital province of Baghdad, where 268 civilians were killed.

Iraqi security forces launch a rocket towards Daesh terrorists during clashes at the front line in Ali Rash village, southeast of Mosul, Iraq, on November 3, 2016. (Photo by Reuters)

Gruesome violence has plagued the northern and western parts of Iraq ever since Daesh terrorists mounted an offensive there more than two years ago, and took control of portions of Iraqi territory.

Iraqi army soldiers and fighters from allied Popular Mobilization Units are trying to win back militant-held regions in joint operations.

After months of preparation, Iraqi army soldiers, backed by volunteer fighters and Kurdish Peshmerga forces, launched an operation on October 17 to retake the strategic northern city of Mosul from Daesh terrorists.

So far, a large number of villages and districts around the city, located 400 kilometers north of Baghdad, have been purged of the extremists.

Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi has vowed that Mosul, once Iraq's second largest city before Daesh militants overran it in June 2014, will be fully recaptured by the year-end.

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