A wave of bombings tore through Baghdad on Tuesday, killing at least 65 people in a spasm of violence on the eve of the 10th anniversary of the US-led invasion.
The attacks show how dangerous and unstable Iraq remains a decade after the war — a country where sectarian violence can explode at any time. And though attacks have ebbed since the peak of the insurgency in 2006 and 2007, tensions simmer and militants remain a potent threat to Iraq’s security forces.
Tuesday’s attacks were mostly by car bombs and targeted mainly Shiite areas, small restaurants, day laborers and bus stops in the Iraqi capital and nearby towns over a span of more than two hours. Along with 65 killed, over 200 people were wounded in the attacks, officials said. The bombings came 10 years to the day that Washington announced the start of the invasion on March 19, 2003 — though by that time it was already the following morning in Iraq.
Also on Tuesday, Iraq’s Cabinet decided to postpone upcoming provincial elections in two provinces dominated by the country’s minority Sunnis for up to six months. The decision followed requests from the political blocs in the provinces, according to the prime minister’s spokesman, Ali al-Moussawi.
The two provinces affected, Anbar and Ninevah, have been at the center of the nearly three-month-long protests against Iraq’s Shiite-led Government. Provincial elections were scheduled for April 20.