(Ahlul Bayt News Agency) - A suicide attacker and a car bombing killed at least 19 people and wounded 38 in separate attacks Friday targeting Shias north of Baghdad.
There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attacks, the latest in an increasing wave of violence across the country.
Iraq has been facing its deadliest outburst of violence since 2008, with more than 2,000 people killed since the start of April.
The bloodshed appears to be largely the work of resurgent Wahhabi-Salafi militants such as al Qaeda's Iraq branch.
The deadliest attack on Friday took place in Baghdad's Kiraiyat neighborhood as worshippers gathered after the evening call to prayers at the Hussienieh Ali Basha mosque.
A suicide bomber walked in during the service and detonated his explosives, killing 15 worshippers and wounding 32, a police officer and a medical official said.
Both officials spoke on condition of anonymity as they were not authorised to talk to the media.
Earlier Friday, an explosives-laden vehicle detonated near a Shia protest camp in the city of Samarra, a police officer said, speaking on condition of anonymity as he was not authorised to release information to the media.
The head of the Salahuddin provincial health directorate, Raed Ibrahim, later confirmed the casualty figures in the attack in Samarra, 95 kilometers north of Baghdad, as seven people were killed and nine were injured.
In the mostly Shia town of Kut, south of Baghdad, a bomb set off in Al-Amil square killed one person and wounded 17 others.
The blast was the latest of several targeting Shias in recent days, with more than 159 people killed already in July in attacks that have mostly struck against the denomination.
Iraq has seen a surge in violence since the start of the year, with the UN reporting that more than 2,500 people were killed from April through June, the highest level since 2008.
Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki has said that militant groups and the remnants of the former Ba’athist regime are responsible for the latest wave of violence in the country.
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6 July 2013 - 04:19
News ID: 437375
A suicide attacker and a car bombing killed at least 19 people and wounded 38 in separate attacks Friday targeting Shias north of Baghdad. In Samarra, seven killed and nine were injured after a bomber, blew his car up near the Al-Razzaq Mosque just before mid-day Friday prayers.
