BAGHDAD, Aug 28: Car bomb blasts and other explosions tore through mainly Shia districts around Baghdad during morning rush hour on Wednesday in a day of violence that killed at least 74, intensifying worries about Iraq’s ability to tame the spiralling mayhem gripping the country.

It was the latest set of large-scale sectarian attacks to hit Iraq, even as the government went on “high alert” in case a possible Western strike in neighbouring Syria increases Iraq’s turmoil.

A relentless wave of killing has left thousands dead since April in the country’s worst spate of bloodshed since 2008. The surge in violence raises fears that Iraq is hurtling back towards the widespread sectarian killing that peaked in 2006 and 2007, when the country was teetering on the edge of civil war. Most of Wednesday’s attacks happened within minutes of each other as people headed to work or were out shopping early in the day.

Anti-Iraq government fighters unleashed explosives-laden cars, suicide bombers and other bombs that targeted parking lots, outdoor markets and restaurants in predominantly Shia neighbourhoods of Baghdad, officials said. A military convoy was hit south of the capital. Security forces sealed off the blast scenes as ambulances raced to pick up the wounded. The twisted wreckage of cars littered the pavement while cleaners and shop owners brushed away debris.

At one restaurant, the floor was stained with blood and dishes were scattered on plastic tables. “What sin have those innocent people committed?” asked Ahmed Jassim, who witnessed one of the explosions in Baghdad’s Hurriyah neighbourhood. “We hold the government responsible.” The northern neighbourhood of Kazimiyah, home to a prominent Shia shrine, was among the worst hit. Two bombs went off in a parking lot, followed by a suicide car bomber who struck onlookers who had gathered at the scene. Police said the attack killed 10 people and wounded 27.

Charles Lister, an analyst at IHS Jane’s Terrorism and Insurgency Centre, said the group is increasingly showing “huge confidence and military capability”. “Both the increasing frequency, and statistically, the increasing deadliness of (their) coordinated nationwide bombings in Iraq underlines the extent of their operational reach and the huge depth of their resources,” he said.

In one particularly brutal attack, a Shia family was shot dead at home in the largely Sunni town of Latifiyah, about 30 kilometres south of Baghdad. Four children were killed along with their parents and an uncle, police said. Authorities said they had previously fled the town after being threatened and had returned only three weeks ago.

Many of the day’s blasts targeted morning shoppers. One parked car bomb in a commercial area in Baghdad’s northern Shaab killed nine. Parked car bombs that went off in outdoor markets killed 19 in the sprawling slum of Sadr City, the northeastern neighbourhood of Shula, the southeastern Jisr Diyala district and the eastern New Baghdad area. Blasts also hit the neighbourhoods of Bayaa, Jamila, Hurriyah and Saydiyah, killing 12. Yet another car bomb exploded in the evening in Baghdad’s southwestern Amil neighborhood, killing four.

Outside the capital, a suicide bomber blew himself up near a restaurant in Mahmoudiyah, about 30 kilometres south of Baghdad, killing five. And in Madain, about 25 kilometres southeast of Baghdad, a roadside bomb struck a passing military patrol, killing four soldiers.

In the only attack apparently targeting Sunnis, a parked car bomb exploded late Wednesday as worshippers left a mosque in Baghdad’s western Yarmouk neighbourhood, killing four. Several Sunni mosques have been attacked in recent months, raising the possibility that largely inactive Shia militias are starting to carry out retaliatory attacks.

Medical officials confirmed the casualty figures, which included more than 230 wounded. All officials spoke on condition of anonymity as they were not authorised to release information.

The deputy United Nations envoy to Iraq, Jacqueline Badcock, condemned the blasts and urged authorities to do more to protect the Iraqi people.

The violence follows months of protests by Iraq’s Sunnis against the Shia-led government that began late last year. Attacks have been rising since a deadly crackdown by security forces on a Sunni protest in April. In response, clerics and other influential Shia and Sunni leaders have called for restraint. More than 510 people have been killed so far in August, according to an Associated Press count.

The sectarian tensions fuelling Iraq’s spiralling violence are being exacerbated by the civil war in Syria, where largely Sunni rebels are fighting to topple President Bashar Assad, who is backed by regional Shia powerhouse Iran.—AP