BAGHDAD – A series of explosions in Baghdad killed at least five people and wounded nearly 20 on Sunday, including a bombing claimed by the Islamic State militant group near the Baghdad International Airport.
The first blast took place near a police patrol in the suburb of Radwaniya, a largely Sunni neighbourhood southwest of Baghdad, killing two policemen and wounding five. Police also reported a roadside bombing on a commercial street in the Hay Jami’a neighbourhood, which killed three people and wounded nine.
Near the Baghdad International Airport, police say a car bomb tore through a parking lot at one of the checkpoints leading to the airport, wounding five people and causing extensive damage to cars. Militants with the Islamic State group claimed responsibility for the attack in a statement posted on a militant website, which said the attack was targeting Americans. The statement, which identified the attacker as a man named Abu Muawiya al-Falluji, could not immediately be verified but it was posted on a website frequently used by the group.
Hospital officials confirmed the casualties. All spoke on the condition of anonymity because they are not authorized to brief the media.
Baghdad has remained relatively calm amid a rampage in northern and western Iraq by the al-Qaida-inspired Sunni militant group. Recent bombings have frequently targeted Shiite-majority areas in the capital, but the violence has been considerably subdued from the darkest days of sectarian bloodletting in 2006 and 2007.
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