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| Car bombs target Shias in Iraq, killing 60 |
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.jpg) BAGHDAD (Reuters) - More than 60 people were killed in a series of car bomb explosions targeting Shia Muslims across Iraq on Monday, police and medics said, part of the worst sectarian violence since December 2011.
The attacks brought the number killed in sectarian clashes in the past week to over 200.
No group claimed responsibility for the bombings. Iraq is home to a number of Sunni insurgent groups, including the Al-Qaeda-affiliated Islamic State of Iraq, which has previously targeted Shias in a bid to provoke a wider sectarian confrontation.
Nine people were killed in one of two car bomb explosions in Basra, a predominantly Shia city 420 km (260 miles) southeast of Baghdad, police and medics said.
"I was on duty when a powerful blast shook the ground," said a police officer near the site of that attack in the Hayaniya neighborhood.
"The blast hit a group of day laborers gathering near a sandwich kiosk," he added, describing corpses littering the ground. "One of the dead bodies was still grabbing a blood-soaked sandwich in his hand."
Five other people were killed in a second blast inside a bus terminal in Saad Square, also in Basra, police and medics said.
In Baghdad, at least 30 people were killed in car bomb explosions in Kamaliya, Ilaam, Diyala Bridge, al-Shurta, Shula, Zaafaraniya and Sadr City - all areas with a high concentration of Shias.
A parked car bomb also exploded in the mainly Shia district of Shaab in northern Baghdad, killing 12 people and wounding 26 others, police and hospital sources said.
In a separate incident, police said a parked car blew up near a bus carrying Shia Muslim pilgrims from Iran near Balad, 80 km (50 miles) north of Baghdad, killing five Iranian pilgrims and two Iraqis who were traveling to the Shia holy city of Samarra.
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