Car bombs kill at least 13 in Shia areas of Baghdad

Bombs exploded in two Shia-majority areas of Baghdad on Monday, killing at least 13 people, security and medical officials said.

A car bomb detonated near a market in the Ameen area of eastern Baghdad, and a roadside bomb exploded near a restaurant in Shaab in the north of the city.

The two attacks wounded at least 44 others, the officials said.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility, but bombings in Baghdad are often carried out by the Islamic State group, which overran swathes of Iraq in June last year.

IS frequently targets members of the country's Shia majority, whom it considers heretics.

But bombings in Baghdad are much less frequent than they were before the 2014 IS offensive, probably because the militants are now more occupied with operations elsewhere.

Iraqi forces backed by a US-led coalition and Iran have managed to regain ground north of Baghdad from IS, but much of western Iraq remains outside government control.

Senior military officials in Baghdad told Middle East Eye in June that car bombings had been reduced due to the implementation of new security measures.

“We opened an office responsible for buying and selling all the cars in Baghdad,” said Lt Gen Abdul Amir al-Shammari, head of Baghdad Operations Command (BOC).

“We made a contract between this office and the people in Iraq, submitted by the BOC commander and nobody can buy or sell any cars without our permission."

“The enemy have good skills for car bombs and we exposed that,” Shammari added.

“Maybe in the future there will be no car bombs.”