Series of blasts kill 71 in Iraq; 201 hurt

At least 71 people were killed and 201 wounded in a series of bombings and other attacks across Baghdad yesterday, police and medical sources said, extending the worst wave of sectarian bloodshed in Iraq for at least five years.
It was not immediately clear who carried out the attacks, which appeared coordinated, but Sunni Muslim insurgents including the al Qaeda-affiliated Islamic State of Iraq have significantly stepped up bombings this year.
More than two years of civil war in neighboring Syria have aggravated deep-rooted sectarian divisions in Iraq, fraying the country's uneasy coalition of Shi'ite Muslim, Sunni Muslim and Kurdish factions.
In Sadr City, an impoverished Shi'ite district in Baghdad's northeast, two car bombs killed seven people. A restaurant owner said he saw an attacker just before one of the explosions.
"A man parked his car in front of the restaurant. He got breakfast and drank his tea. (Then) I heard a huge explosion when I was inside the kitchen," the owner, who requested anonymity, told Reuters.
"When I went outside, I saw his car completely destroyed and he had disappeared. Many people were hurt."
Another car bomb killed seven people and wounded 23 in Jisr Diyala in southeastern Baghdad, police and medics said.
The Interior Ministry described the attacks were "terrorist explosions" but said the number of people killed was only 20, with 213 wounded. The Shi'ite-led Baghdad government has said that media reports exaggerate attacks in Iraq and that security forces have stopped many attempted bombings.