Multiple bomb blasts kill 24 in Baghdad
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Seven people were killed in the bloodiest attack, which occurred in the Shiite Muslim Abu Dsheer district in the south of the Iraqi capital, where the car bomb hit near a crowded market.
The attacks also struck Dura, where at least five people were killed, and Baghdad Jadidah, where four were left dead, according to Agence France-Presse.
Two explosions went off in the predominantly Sunni south Baghdad neighborhood of Dura, while at least three vehicles rigged with explosives were detonated in the mostly-Shiite areas of Baghdad Jadidah, Hurriyah and Bayaa.
The attacks were the latest in a protracted surge in nationwide violence that has left more than 650 people dead so far this month, sparking fears Iraq is slipping back into the all-out conflict that plagued it in 2006 and 2007.
The countrywide unrest, coupled with a deadly standoff between security forces and anti-government fighters west of Baghdad, comes just months before parliamentary elections.
(Al Arabiya with AFP and Reuters)