31 killed, 88 injured in 4 Iraq bombings

Around 25 people were killed and dozens more injured on Thursday morning as two separate explosions rocked central Iraq. A car bomb exploded in downtown Hilla and a suicide car bomb attack took place in Karbala near al-Imam al-Hussein bin Ali’s final resting place. An Iraqi policeman was killed in a car bomb explosion targeting a police patrol in the east of Mosul, as five army men were also killed and nine more injured in a suicide attack targeting an army force outside al-Rashid Bank in Fallujah.   A security source in Babel province (100 kilometres south of Baghdad) said the initial casualty assessment was 20 people killed and 55 more injured, including security forces, in a dual bomb attack with a car bomb and an IED outside the Hilla Chamber of Commerce in the downtown district of Bab Mishhad. In a separate incident, a police source in the province of Karbala (105 kilometres south of Baghdad) said five people were killed and 22 more injured in the initial casualty assessment when a suicide car bomber detonated his vehicle in Maytham al-Tammar Street east of Karbala, only one kilometre away from the al-Imam al-Hussein bin Ali’s final resting place. Security has been heightened in Karbala recently in accordance with a security plan set out by the Central Euphrates Operations Command for the month of Moharram. The bombings took place only four days after the Day of Ashura which saw no security breaches, according to the Command and the Governor of Karbala Amaleddine al-Hor. The provinces of Karbala and Babel witness occasional flare-ups of violence and bombings, especially during religious holidays. Security forces are tracking down elements wanted by the law in various parts of the provinces.