BAGHDAD — A spate of bombings in Baghdad Thursday killed at least 16 people and wounded dozens more, shattering a relative calm with the capital’s deadliest violence in weeks.

 

Roadside bombs and explosives-packed cars detonated across a half-dozen neighborhoods in the north, south and west of Baghdad, underlining persistent security concerns even as international energy companies met in the centre of the capital to bid on nationwide oil and gas exploration blocks.

 

Overall, 16 people were killed and at least 56 others wounded in the attacks, according to an interior ministry official and two medical sources.

 

Thursday’s deadliest attack took place in the north Baghdad neighborhood of Shuala, where a car bomb killed at least 13 people and wounded 32 others, medical officials said.

 

A police first lieutenant in Shuala said the car was driven by a suicide attacker.

 

The explosion badly damaged nearby shops, and windows in several adjacent buildings were shattered, an AFP journalist at the scene said. Dozens of people in the area were crying and emergency responders were still at the scene more than an hour after the attack. — AFP