UDPATE 1-Baghdad car bomb kills 9, wounds 18 - police

Tue Apr 7, 2009 5:50am EDT

(updates toll, adds details)

BAGHDAD, April 7 (Reuters) - A car bomb killed nine people and wounded 18 in the Shi'ite Kadhimiya district of northwest Baghdad on Tuesday, police said, a day after seven car bombs killed 37 people across the Iraqi capital.

Police said the number of casualties from the attack, near one of Shi'ite Islam's holiest shrines, was preliminary and could rise.

Violence has fallen dramatically in Iraq in the past year, but al Qaeda and other insurgents have shown themselves still capable of launching frequent bomb attacks.

U.S. and Iraqi officials blamed Monday's series of bombings -- an apparently coordinated strike -- on al Qaeda militants.

The targeting of Shi'ite areas such as Kadhimiya has been a favourite tactic of Sunni Islamist al Qaeda. (Writing by Mohammed Abbas; Editing by Andrew Dobbie)



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