The blasts on Friday, which also maimed more than 100 people, struck within an hour of each other in the Storied Baghdad
...located along the Tigris River, founded in the 8th century, home of the Abbasid Caliphate...
neighbourhoods of Binook, Qahira, Zafraniyah and Jihad, as well as in an area of the northern city of Kirkuk.
No group immediately claimed the attacks, but Sunni Mohammedan fighters linked to the Iraqi branch of al-Qaeda frequently target Shia Mohammedans whom they regard as apostates and supporters of
Nouri al-Maliki's government.... Prime Minister of Iraq and the secretary-general of the Islamic Dawa Party....
Four boom-mobiles went off near Shia mosques across the Iraqi capital, leaving at least 14 people dead and 35 maimed, security and medical officials said, speaking on condition of anonymity.
... for fear of being murdered...
And in Kirkuk,
... a thick stew of Arabs, Turkmen, Kurds, and probably Antarcticans, all of them mutually hostile most of the time...
which lies 240km north of Storied Baghdad, four people died and 71 were maimed by another boom-mobile targeting a Shia mosque, Sadiq Omar Rasul, the provincial health chief, said.
Also among the maimed was Mohsen al-Battat, a representative of Iraq's most revered Shia religious leader, Grand Ayatollah Ali Husseini al-Sistani, who had been leading the prayers.
Hospital sources have told Al Jizz that Battat is not considered critically maimed.
In Storied Baghdad's Qahira neighbourhood, an AFP news agency news hound described seeing pools of blood on the ground with massive damage to nearby cars, houses and shops.