More than 40 people died in bomb attacks in Iraq on Wednesday morning, including 24 at a popular market in Baghdad. A further 35 people were injured in the attack on the Shorja wholesale market in downtown, police said, according to Reuters.
A bomb in nearby Karrada killed two people around the same time.
Three hours earlier, a bomb apparently left on a parkedbicycle blasted a crowd of young Iraqi men outside an army recruiting office, killing 12 and injuring 38. Hilla provincial police spokesman Captain Muthanna al-Mamuri said the bicycle have been left early in the morning, laden with an explosive package, close to the office inthe centre of Hilla, 100 km south of Baghdad. It exploded at around 8 a.m., when a crowd had gathered.
Meanwhile, a large group of men responding to a newspaper advert forarmy recruits rioted outside the governor’s office in Samawa, 270 km south of Baghdad, after being told to comeback at the weekend, a witness said. They added the police initially fired warning shots and then shot into the crowd after they started throwing rocks at the building, killing one man and wounding five.
