Iraq bombing wave claims 33 lives

BAGHDAD: Iraqi officials say multiple car bombs have exploded within minutes of each other in Baghdad, raising the day’s death toll to at least 33.
Police say the deadliest of Tuesday evening’s blasts hit a row of restaurants in the capital’s eastern Talibiyah neighborhood, killing seven and wounding 28.
Back-to-back car bombs blew up near a police station in the western neighborhood of Sadiyah, killing six and wounding 15. Police say another blast hit a central square in the commercial district of Karradah, killing six and wounding 14.
Authorities said earlier attacks killed 14. Hospital officials confirmed the casualty figures, and all of the officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to talk to the media.
The deadliest attack came when gunmen stormed the house of a member of a Sunni militia opposed to Al-Qaeda, killing him and his wife and three children in a southern suburb of the capital, police and hospital officials said.
The militia, known as the Sahwa, helped US troops fight Al-Qaeda at the height of the war and since been a target for hard-line insurgents who consider them traitors. Prominent Sahwa leader Wisam Al-Hardan managed to escape unharmed an assassination attempt on Monday by two suicide bombers, but six of his bodyguards and a bystander were killed.