Forty die in Baghdad car bombings: police

BAGHDAD (Reuters) – At least 40 people were killed and 95
wounded in three apparently coordinated car bombs at two
markets in Baghdad’s Shi’ite district of Sadr City on Sunday,
police said.

It was one of the worst days of violence in the capital in
recent months.

Two car bombs exploded in one market while a third blew up
almost simultaneously at another. Police said they had
discovered a fourth car bomb at another market and defused it.

Sadr city is a stronghold of radical Shi’ite cleric Moqtada
al-Sadr, who commands the Mehdi Army militia force. The
district in eastern Baghdad has been relatively free of
violence in the last couple of years.

Ten people were killed in a series of mortar blasts and
roadside bombings in Baghdad earlier on Sunday as the trial of
Saddam Hussein and seven co-accused on charges of crimes
against humanity resumed after a 10-day break.