Car bombs kill at least 12 in Baghdad Shiite area

The blasts in a car park in the Talbiyah area, which also wounded at least 40 people, were the latest in a series of bombings targeting members of Iraq’s Shiite majority in the capital that have left more than 40 dead in three days.

There was no immediate claim for the bombings, but the Islamic State (IS) jihadist group, which has seized large areas of Iraq since June, has said it carried out other similar attacks in recent days. Suicide bombers struck Shiite mosques in Baghdad on Sunday and Monday, killing at least 33 people in total.

IS and other Sunni extremists consider Shiites to be heretics and frequently target them with bombings, the victims of which are almost entirely civilians.

Security forces and allied Shiite militiamen have kept IS from attempting to enter the capital in months of heavy fighting, but militants are still able to carry out near-daily bombings in Baghdad.

The Iraqi government has relied on Shiite militias to help resist IS, although some of them were involved in brutal sectarian killings in past years.-AFP