50 die in Iraq bombings

Baghdad: Atleast fifty people were killed and several wounded in a series of bombings and shootings in Iraq Tuesday, the police said.

In Baghdad, eight car bombs ripped through crowded areas mainly in Shiite districts across the capital, killing and wounding several people, an interior ministry source told Xinhua.

Also in the capital, two people were killed when two bombs attached to their cars detonated in western and eastern Baghdad, while a third was shot dead by gunmen in the southern part of Baghdad, the source said.

A suicide bomber drove an explosive-laden truck into the entrance of an Iraqi army base in the town of Iskandariyah, some 50 km south of Baghdad, killing at least two people and wounding more than 10.

Separately, another car bomb ripped through Iskandariyah wounding 10 people.

Elsewhere, at least four soldiers were wounded in a car bomb explosion in the town of Tarmiyah, some 40 km north of Baghdad.

Violence and sporadic high-profile bomb attacks are still common in the Iraqi cities despite the dramatic decrease in violence since its peak in 2006 and 2007, when the country was engulfed in sectarian killings.