42 killed in Iraq car bombings

A wave of 17 car bombs Monday struck the Iraqi capital and several other cities, killing at least 42 people and wounding around 200 others, police said.

Up to 12 car bombs ripped through Baghdad during the morning rush hours, mainly targeting the predominantly Shia districts of Sadr city, Xinhua reported.

At least 23 people were killed and 132 others wounded, an interior ministry official said.

Two car bombs and a roadside bomb struck a crowded parking lot in Kut, some 170 km southeast of Baghdad, killing up to eight people and wounding 40 others, police said.

Two more car bombs exploded in Simawa, some 270 km south of Baghdad, killing five people and wounding 21, police told Xinhua.

In the southern oil hub of Basra, some 550 km south of Baghdad, another car bomb went off, killing two people and wounding eight others, police said.

In Salahudin province, a roadside bomb exploded near the convoy of Lt. Colonel Hammad al-Dulaimi, a provincial police commando chief.

The blast near Baiji, some 220 km north of Baghdad, killed the police official, his aide and two bodyguards, and destroyed the car, police said.

No group claimed responsibility for the attack.