Several wounded in 2 blasts in Baghdad

Baghdad (IraqiNews.com) Several civilians were wounded on Thursday when two sticky bombs exploded under two vehicles in east and central Baghdad, a security official has said.

Interior Ministry spokesperson Saad Maan said in a statement that the bombs went off at the city of al-Sadr, east of Baghdad, and bab al-Sheikh at central Baghdad.

Baghdad recurrently witnesses suicide bombings and booby-trap explosions, The violence surged with Islamic State militants taking over large areas of the country.

Since 2014, violence surged in Iraq with the Islamic State militants taking over wide areas of the country, and the United Nations said earlier this month that 58000 people died since then. UN statistics say 3150 Iraqis were either killed or wounded in violence during October alone, with Baghdad marked as the most hit.

Observers believe ISIS have begun to target several areas across Iraq to divert security focus on Mosul, where the group fights to defend its last bastion in Iraq under the brunt of continuous advancements by Iraqi government and popular troops.

On Wednesday, the Ministry of Defense said it apprehended a three-member terrorist cell affiliated with ISIS’s so-called “State of Baghdad”. It said it found IEDs, explosive belts, hand grenades and cell phones in their possession.

“That group was intending to target citizens at marketplaces and shopping areas in some regions of Baghdad,” a ministry statement said.