A bomb blast near a Shiite shrine in Baghdad today killed seven people and wounded 23, among them women and children, in the third straight day of attacks in the capital, officials said. The mid-morning explosion occurred only 200 metres from the Musa Kadhim mosque, defence and interior ministry officials said. Shiite Islam's most important house of prayer in the Iraqi capital has been the scene of repeated attacks since the 2003 US-led invasion to topple Saddam Hussein triggered deadly sectarian violence.
Only hours before the US president Barack Obama flew into Baghdad yesterday on a surprise visit and said that Iraq would soon have to defend itself, a car bomb blast in the same district killed eight people and wounded 20 others. On Monday, a total of six deadly car explosions in mainly Shiite areas of Baghdad killed at least 34 people and wounded nearly 140, raising new fears of a return to the violence that tore the capital apart in 2007. *AFP