Eleven people killed in two attacks as violence continues in Iraq amid political crisis after US military withdrawal
Two separate car bombs have exploded in a Shia district in eastern Baghdad, police officials said, killing 11 people as violence surges in Iraq after the US military withdrawal.
A wave of bombings has killed at least 170 people since the beginning of the year, many of whom were Shia pilgrims attending religious commemorations. The last American soldiers left the country on 18 December.
Suspected Sunni insurgents have frequently targeted Shia communities and Iraqi security forces to undermine public confidence in the Shia-dominated government and its efforts to protect people.
Tuesday's first attack targeted an early morning gathering of labourers in Baghdad's Sadr City. Police said eight people were killed and another 21 wounded. Minutes later, a car packed with explosives blew up near a pastry shop in the same district, killing three civilians and wounding 26 others, police said.
Hospital officials in Baghdad confirmed the death toll.
While insurgents have carried out a number of deadly attacks in recent years, there is little indication yet the country is slipping back towards the widespread sectarian bloodshed of 2006 and 2007.
Nonetheless, these recent attacks are seen as particularly dangerous because they coincide with both the departure of US troops, as well as a political crisis pitting Shia officials against the largest Sunni-backed bloc.
The political battle erupted last month after the government issued an arrest warrant against the Sunni vice-president, Tareq al-Hashemi, on terrorism charges, sending him into virtual exile in the Kurdish autonomous region in northern Iraq. In protest, Hashemi's Sunni-backed Iraqiya bloc has been boycotting parliament and cabinet sessions, bringing government work to a standstill.
Sunnis fear that without the US presence as a last-resort guarantor of a sectarian balance, the Shia government will try to pick off their leaders one by one as the prime minister, Nouri al-Maliki, tries to cement his grip on power.
Last week, the leader of the Sunni-backed Iraqiya bloc, Ayad Allawi, accused Maliki of unfairly targeting Sunni officials and deliberately triggering a political crisis that is tearing Iraq apart. Allawi, who is a Shia, said Iraq needs a new prime minister or elections to prevent the country from disintegrating along sectarian lines.