Car Bombings, Suicide Blasts Across Iraq Kill 70 in 1 Day

A spate of car bombings and other attacks across Iraq today left at least 70 dead and many more wounded, Reuters reports. The grim breakdown, as per Al Jazeera: In the northern city of Mosul, 28 were killed by four car bombs targeting members of the police and army. In central Iraq, 22 were killed and 30 wounded in car bombings at two separate markets. In a town near Baquba, three car bombs at a market killed 13 and wounded 50. In the town of Taji, a car bomb at a market killed at least eight. At an army base near Kirkuk, another car bomb killed one soldier and injured six. In the town of Madean, two bombings at police checkpoints killed three. And in a northern Baghdad neighborhood, a bombing at a cafe killed one.

"I was selling watermelon and suddenly I heard a powerful blast at the entrance to the market. I fled from the dust and smoke when a second blast turned the place into hell ," a market vendor caught in one of the attacks tells Reuters. No one has taken responsibility for any of the attacks, but officials are blaming Sunni insurgents with links to al-Qaeda. Tension between the minority Sunnis and ruling Shi'ites have been rising, with almost 2,000 killed since April. (More Iraq stories.)