Bomb attacks in Iraq kill scores

bbc.co.uk 5 January 2012

At least 72 people have been killed in bomb attacks targeting Shia Muslims in southern Iraq and the capital Baghdad.

Officials said 45 pilgrims died in a suicide attack in Nasiriya and 27 people died in Shia areas of Baghdad.

The attacks were the deadliest since the last US soldiers pulled out of Iraq on 18 December.

Sectarian tensions have risen since the US pullout and since an arrest warrant was issued for Sunni Vice-President Tariq al-Hashemi.

The BBC's Rafid Jabboori in Baghdad says Iraq is going through a severe political crisis and the situation in the country is tense.

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• 5 January - At least 27 die in blasts in two Shia areas of Baghdad. A roadside bomb kills 45 pilgrims near Nasiriya
• 4 January - At least three die in bombings and grenade attacks in Baquba and Abu Ghraib, north of Baghdad
• 26 December - At least seven killed in suicide car bomb attack outside Iraq's interior ministry
• 22 December - 68 killed in multiple blasts in Baghdad
• 5 December - At least 30 killed in attacks targeting Shia pilgrims in central Iraq
• 27 October - 38 killed, 78 injured in twin bomb blasts in a Shia area of Baghdad
• 12 October - 28 killed by car bombs and roadside bombs around Baghdad
• 15 August - At least 60 killed in co-ordinated attacks in several Iraqi cities