BAGHDAD: Twelve people were killed in bombings in Iraq on Thursday, most them in attacks against markets or shopping areas in violence-wracked Baghdad, security sources said.
Insurgents planted a motorcycle bomb in Shorja market -- Baghdad's oldest -- killing four people and wounding 20, officials said.
The blast ripped through the market on the east side of the Tigris river in central Baghdad at around 11:00 am (0800 GMT). "The bomb was strapped to a motorcycle which was parked on one side of the road that runs through the market," which has been a regular target of insurgents in the past year, a security official said.
Two makeshift bombs also exploded seconds apart in a major shopping street in the southwestern district of Al-Bayah, killing three people and wounding seven.
Later in the day a suicide car bomb aimed at a police patrol killed two policemen and wounded 16 people in shopping area in Karrada, central Baghdad, a security source said.
In the flashpoint Sunni bastion of Fallujah west of Baghdad, two men and a woman were killed when a suicide bomber on a motorcycle tried to force his way into a post office in the centre of the city. His bomb exploded outside the gate, police said.
A series of bomb attacks in Baghdad have targetted markets recently in a bid to inflict maximum civilian casualties.
On Monday, 88 people were killed when two car bombs exploded in the busy Haraj market which sells used electronic goods, clothing and household items. It was the deadliest attack in Iraq this year.
