BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Two car bombs ripped into a busy intersection and a public square in Baghdad on Tuesday, killing at least 19 people a week after a wave of deadly bombings highlighted Iraq's struggle with militant groups.
Clouds of dark smoke rose above the centre of the capital where the bombs exploded just minutes apart, leaving dead and wounded lying in the street and slumped inside a damaged minibus, witnesses and police said.
Three young men in blood-stained T-shirts searched for a friend near the wreckage of one blast and women in traditional abaya gowns screamed out the name of a missing relative, a Reuters reporter at the scene said.
"We were in a patrol when we heard the first explosion. The second explosion hit another square, and we went to help... There was a minibus with six dead passengers inside it," said Ahmed Hassan, a police officer.
The explosions followed attacks and bombings in Baghdad and across the country on July 23 that killed more than 100 people in a coordinated surge of violence against mostly Shi'ite Muslim targets. Al Qaeda's local affiliate, the Islamic State of Iraq, claimed responsibility for those attacks.
Violence eased since the height of the war six years ago when tens of thousands were killed in sectarian slaughter between Sunni and Shi'ite Muslims. Since the last U.S. troops left Iraq in December, insurgents have carried out a major attack at least once a month.
(Reporting by Aseel Kami, Saad Shalash, Kareem Raheem in Baghdad; Writing by Patrick Markey; Editing by Alistair Lyon)
