Toll from spate of Iraq attacks rises to 46 dead

BAGHDAD: A spate of Iraq attacks, including twin bombings at a market and the assassination of a former MP, killed at least 46 people, officials said Tuesday.

The shootings and bombings on Monday marked the latest in a sharp rise in violence that has seen more than 500 people killed already this month, fuelling fears Iraq is on the brink of plunging back into the brutal sectarian war that plagued it years ago.

France, meanwhile, offered to help combat the bloodshed, which comes just months before landmark general elections, after Iraq appealed for international help in combatting militancy.

Monday’s attacks struck in areas north of the capital that have borne the brunt of the worsening unrest, with nearly 6,000 people killed so far this year.

The deadliest assault was on a market in the Sadriyah neighbourhood of central Baghdad, where an evening roadside bomb followed by a suicide attack killed at least 23 people as Iraqis gathered at restaurants and cafes and to shop.

The market had been closed off entirely to vehicle traffic after a massive car bomb in April 2007 killed 140 people, during the peak of Iraq’s bloody sectarian conflict.

Elsewhere in the capital, a series of attacks killed eight people.

In the northern city of Mosul, nine were killed in violence, while attacks in Baquba and near Balad left five more dead.

In an attack south of the capital, meanwhile, a former lawmaker was gunned down.

Jamal Mohsen, a former MP from city of Nasiriyah, was shot dead inside his house on the outskirts of the city. (AFP)