05 August 2016•Update: 05 August 2016
By Ibrahim Saleh
BAGHDAD
At least seven people were killed in various acts of violence in capital Baghdad and Iraq’s northeastern Diyala province on Thursday, local security sources have told Anadolu Agency.
Mahmoud al-Dalwi, a police first lieutenant in Diyala, said a suicide car-bomber had blown his vehicle up at a checkpoint guarded by Shia Hashd al-Shaabi militiamen.
The incident occurred roughly 5 kilometers from the Al-Azim Dam, which itself is located some 75 kilometers north of Baquba, Diyala’s provincial capital.
According to al-Dalwi, one militiaman was killed by the blast and another five injured.
In Baghdad, meanwhile, Hassan al-Nofal, an Interior Ministry official, told Anadolu Agency that two people had been killed and another 10 injured when a bomb went off in the city’s southern Nahrawan district.
Al-Nofal added that another two bombs had gone off in the capital’s southwestern Sulaih and Al-Aamel districts, killing two and injuring eight.
The official went on to say that police had found an unidentified individual’s body -- which appeared to have been exposed to fire -- inside the trunk of a car in eastern Baghdad's Al-Obeidi district.
No groups have taken responsibility for the string of attacks, but the Iraqi authorities typically blame the Daesh terrorist group for such acts of violence.
Iraq has suffered from a devastating security vacuum since mid-2014, when Daesh captured Mosul -- the country’s second-largest city -- and overran large swathes of territory in the northern and western parts of the country.
While the Iraqi army and pro-government militias have recently retaken considerable territory from Daesh, the group remains in control of several parts of the country, from which it carries out frequent attacks on both security forces and civilian targets.
