Bombings and shootings kill 15 in Iraq

Baghdad: Attacks in Iraq, including two bombings in a market and a blast targeting people who give food and water to the needy, killed 15 people on Saturday, officials said.

Violence has reached a level this year not seen since 2008, when Iraq was just emerging from a period of brutal sectarian killings, raising fears that the country is falling back into all-out conflict.

In the deadliest attack, two bombs exploded in a market in Nahrawan, near Baghdad, killing at least five people and wounding at least 13, while a bomb in a restaurant in Hussainiyah, also close to the capital, killed two people and wounded six.

In southern Baghdad, a car bomb targeted people who give food and water to visitors walking to Karbala, killing at least four people and wounding at least 13.

Other bombings and shootings in Iraq killed four people, among them a local anti-Al Qaida militia leader and a policeman, and wounded three police.

More people died in violence in the first eight days of this month than in the whole of last December, and over 6,400 people have been killed since the beginning of the year, according to AFP figures based on security and medical sources.