Blasts kill at least 20 in Baghdad

Baghdad: At least 20 people were killed and scores more wounded, when three car bombs exploded in southwestern Baghdad on Tuesday, according to Interior and police sources.

The car bombs went off in a busy intersection of a mainly Shiite district. At least 14 people were killed.

“There were only passengers and vendors here. Is this the jihad they are fighting?" a witness said.

A separate roadside bomb attack killed five and injured 15 in Baghdad's central Bab Al Sharji market.

Three more roadside bombs later killed a police lieutenant colonel and wounded nine people, an Interior Ministry source said.

Television footage showed rescue workers pulling charred bodies from a mangled wreckage in the Bayaa district where the car bombs exploded.

Sunni insurgent groups including Al Qaida have previously launched bomb attacks against markets and other civilian targets in Shiite and mixed areas.