Car bombs hit several Baghdad neighborhoods and a town south of the Iraqi capital on Wednesday, killing at least 34 people and wounding dozens, AP cited officials saying on Wednesday, April 9th. This is the latest bout of violence ahead of the country’s first parliamentary elections since the 2011 U.S. troop withdrawal.
Violence has surged in Iraq since last year, with the country weathering its deadliest bout of violence since it pulled back from the brink of civil war in 2008. U.N. figures showed that last year, Iraq saw the highest death toll in attacks, with 8,868 people killed.
Wednesday’s attacks came as Iraq is heading toward a crucial election on April 30, its first vote since the 2011 U.S. troop pullout.
More than 9,000 candidates will vie for 328 seats in parliament but there will be no balloting in parts of the western, Sunni-dominated Anbar province engulfed in clashes between security forces and armed tribes.
The armed tribes have seized and are continuing to hold parts of the provincial capital, Ramadi, and nearly all of the nearby city of Fallujah.