Iraq, April 18: Blasts in Baghdad claim at least 27 lives while a car bomb strikes next to US consulate in Erbil, killing three more.
A series of car-bomb attacks have hit two cities in Iraq, leaving dozens of people dead.
In the capital Baghdad, at least 27 people were killed on Friday in multiple blasts.
The deadliest attack was inside a car dealership in the mainly Shia Habibya neighbourhood in the east of the city. No one has claimed responsibility.
In Friday’s other attack, a car bomb struck next to the US consulate in Erbil, the capital of Iraq’s Kurdish territory.
Security sources said the blast in the Ankawa district killed at least three people and injured five others.
Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) has claimed responsibility for the Erbil bombing, according to the SITE Intelligence Group.US officials said no consulate staffs was harmed in the attack, which has been condemned by the US administration,
SITE cited an ISIL account on Twitter claiming that fighters from its Kirkuk division “were able to detonate a car bomb on the building of the American consulate in the city, which led to killing and wounding many of them”.
Al Jazeera’s Kim Vinnell, reporting from Erbil, said the blast came just days after US and Kurdish officials applauded the advances they had made against ISIL in Iraq.
“It’s too early to say whether gains have been made,” she said after Friday’s attack.
