Four car bombs struck Shiite mosques during prayers today in Baghdad and the disputed northern Iraqi city of Kirkuk, killing at least four people and wounding more than 80, officials said.
The blasts all struck within an hour of each other in the Baghdad neighbourhoods of Jihad, Qahira and Zafraniyah, as well as in an area of south Kirkuk.
The attacks come amid a spike in violence nationwide as the country prepares for its first elections in three years — provincial polls that will be held in 12 of Iraq’s 18 provinces on April 20.
In the deadliest attack, three people were killed and 70 wounded by a car bomb in southern Kirkuk city, near the
al-Rasul al-Aadham mosque, according to Sadiq Omar Rasul,chief of the provincial health directorate.
The blasts in Baghdad, meanwhile, left at least one dead and 14 wounded, security and medical officials said.
———————-(AFP)