Multiple car bombs detonated Thursday across Baghdad, including one blast close to the capital’s fortified “Green Zone,” have killed at least 16 people and wounded more than 40, Agence France-Presse reported.
The explosion close to Baghdad’s “Green Zone,” a highly-fortified area housing Western embassies including the U.S. mission to Iraq, was one of five that took place early on Thursday. The blast killed four and wounded 12 people, Reuters reported police sources as saying.
Meanwhile, AFP reported that three car bombs and a roadside explosive device hit three different areas of Baghdad - two of them Shiite-majority districts, and another area home to both Shiites and Sunnis.
The violence came a day after attacks, including a blast at a café north of the capital, killed 17 people.
Iraqi Prime Minister on Wednesday said security forces would continue large-scale efforts to hunt militants.
“The operation that we started in chasing terrorists, and those who stand behind them, will continue until we protect our people,” AFP quoted Maliki as saying.
He said more than 800 alleged militants had been detained and dozens of others killed, and that security forces had destroyed militant infrastructure used to make car bombs and seized a large amounts of weapons and explosives.
Iraq is witnessing some of its worst violence since U.S. troops left 18 months ago, with Sunni Islamist militants including al-Qaeda waging an insurgency against the Shiite-led government.
Multiple car bombs explode each week killing scores of people.
