Rocket attack, bombings leave 15 dead, over 50 wounded in Iraqi capital

At least 15 people have been killed and more than four dozen others injured in a series of bomb explosions and a rocket attack at residential neighborhoods across the Iraqi capital Baghdad.

Security officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, said five people lost their lives and 15 others sustained injuries when three rockets landed onto a weapons storage facility in eastern Baghdad on Friday.

A bomb struck a shopping street in the capital’s western neighborhood of Ghazaliya, killing two civilians and injuring eight others.

Elsewhere in western Baghdad, three civilians were killed and eight others injured when a bomb blast ripped through a commercial district.

Additionally, two bomb attacks on fruit and vegetable markets across Baghdad killed five people and wounded 20 others.

No individual or group has claimed responsibility for the assaults yet, but such incidents are usually blamed on the Daesh Takfiri terrorist group.

The United Nations Assistance Mission for Iraq says a total of 691 Iraqis were killed and another 1,016 wounded in acts of terrorism, violence and armed conflict in August.

According to the UN mission, the number of civilian fatalities stood at 473. Violence also claimed the lives of 218 members of the Iraqi security forces. A great portion of last month’s fatalities was recorded in Baghdad, where 231 civilians were killed.

The northern and western parts of Iraq have been plagued by gruesome violence ever since Daesh terrorists mounted an offensive there more than two years ago. The militants have been committing vicious crimes against all ethnic and religious communities in Iraq, including Shias, Sunnis, Kurds and Christians.

The Iraqi army and volunteer fighters from the Popular Mobilization Units have been engaged in joint operations to retake militant-held regions.