Attacks in Baghdad area kill 21 people

Bombings mainly targeting Shiite areas of Baghdad and attacks on security force checkpoints in and around the capital killed at least 21 people, including an Indian today, officials said.
Iraq has been hit by a year-long surge in bloodshed that has reached levels not seen since 2008, driven by widespread discontent among its Sunni Arab minority and the bloody civil war in neighbouring Syria.
And Baghdad is hit by near-daily bombings and shootings.
Today's seven car bombs and two roadside bombs, which struck six different areas of Baghdad, killed at least 14 people and wounded more than 70 people, the officials said.

One of the car bombs exploded near the University of Technology in the Karrada district of central Baghdad, killing three people and wounding at least 10.
"The terrorist was planning to blow up the car on the main road near the university," but security forces do not allow cars to stop there so he instead left it on a side street, a police officer at the scene said.

An AFP journalist saw the charred remains of the car, and said two cars and several nearby homes were damaged by the blast.
While there was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attacks, Sunni jihadists often target members of Iraq's Shiite Muslim majority, whom they consider to be apostates.

Gunmen later attacked three checkpoints in Baghdad while a roadside bomb exploded near a fourth in Tarmiyah, north of the capital, killing at least four police and three soldiers.
Gunmen also attacked a bus northeast of the city of Baquba, killing an Indian man and wounding four others.
The violence came a day after two suicide bombers attacked the city council headquarters in Samarra, north of Baghdad, and took employees hostage.