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Update 2: Twin bombings kill up to 15 in Iraq's Baghdad

Xinhua, September 17, 2015 Adjust font size:

Up to 15 people were killed and 47 others wounded on Thursday in attacks by a suicide bomber and a roadside bomb in the Iraqi capital of Baghdad, an Interior Ministry source said.

"The latest reports said that the toll rose to 15 killed and 47 wounded in the two bomb attacks in downtown Baghdad," the source told Xinhua on condition of anonymity.

In one of the attacks, 10 people, including three policemen, were killed and 30 others wounded when a suicide bomber detonated his explosive vest during rush hours near a police vehicle at a busy outdoor market near Taiyran Square in downtown Baghdad, the source said.

Separately, a roadside bomb went off in the nearby Wathbah Square, leaving two policemen and three civilian killed and 17 people wounded, the source added.

Iraq has been witnessing some of the worst violence in years. Terrorism and violence have left at least 12,282 civilians dead and 23,126 others injured in 2014, making it the deadliest year since the flareup of sectarian violence in 2006-2007, according to a recent United Nations report.

Many blame the current chronic instability, cycle of violence, and the emergence of extremist groups such as the Islamic State (IS) on the United States, which invaded Iraq in March 2003 under the pretext of seeking to destroy weapons of mass destruction (WMD) in the country. The war led to the ouster and eventual execution of Iraqi president Saddam Hussein, but no WMD was found. Endit