Blasts rip through western Baghdad killing 40

[1]

Four bombs ripped through Shiite neighbourhoods in Baghdad this evening, killing at least 40 people in the worst violence the capital has seen in months, Iraqi officials said.

An American civilian contractor also died in a separate attack. The violence underscored the fragile nature of the security gains in Iraq at a time when American forces are preparing to withdraw by the end of this year and the challenges facing the State Department personnel and American contractors who would continue on after the US military is gone.

The first three bombs went off in quick succession in a Southwestern Baghdad neighbourhood shortly after 7pm. One targeted a Shiite mosque, another exploded just outside a popular market, while the third went off inside the market where people were doing their evening shopping ahead of the Muslim weekend, Iraqi police officials said.

The officials said 34 people died and 82 others were injured in the three blasts. An official from Baghdad's Yarmouk hospital confirmed the casualty figures.

An Iraqi resident, Jabir Ali, said he was about 200 meters away when one of the bombs went off near a barbershop where his cousin works.

"I saw many people killed and injured. I went to see my cousin. The glass at his shop was broken and he was injured in his head, chest and hand by the glass," said Ali, who drove his cousin to the hospital.

About an hour later, a parked car bomb targeting a police patrol killed six people, including one policeman and five bystanders in a different neighbourhood in Southwestern Baghdad, said hospital officials.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility, but Sunni extremists such as al Qaida in Iraq generally tend to target Shiite mosques and neighbourhoods and Iraqi security forces.

The American civilian killed earlier today was working for an agency assisting the US government, said David J. Ranz, the spokesman for the US Embassy in Baghdad.

"An American civilian working with an implementing partner of the United States Agency for International Development in Iraq was killed in a terrorist attack today in Baghdad. Three additional civilians were wounded in the attack, including one American citizen," he said.

The name of the victim was being withheld until relatives are notified, Ranz said.