BAGHDAD — Eight car bombs exploded in Shiite neighborhoods across Iraq's capital Baghdad Sunday morning, killing at least 28 people in blasts that tore into shops, restaurants and busy commercial streets. No one claimed responsibility for the attacks, but insurgents have stepped up their activity since the beginning of the year in a bid to undermine the Shiite-led government and trigger deeper inter-communal fighting. One blast tore off shop fronts in Qaiyara district while another left the remains of a car and its twisted engine littered across a high street in the busy, commercial Karrada district packed with restaurants and shops. "I was buying an air-conditioner and suddenly there was an explosion. I threw myself on the ground. Minutes later I saw many people around, some of them dead, others wounded," said salesman Jumaa Kareem, his jacket spattered with blood in Habibiya district, which was also hit. Sunday's blasts followed the assassination of a senior Iraqi army intelligence officer Saturday, the latest in a wave of suicide bombings since January that indicate insurgent determination to stoke sectarian tensions. Violence in Iraq is increasing just as political tensions are rising against Shiite Prime Minister Nouri Al-Maliki's power-sharing government made up of Shi'ite, Sunni and ethnic Kurds who split posts among them. Violence in Iraq is still far from the sectarian bloodletting that killed tens of thousands in 2006-07, though insurgents have carried out at least one big attack a month since the last US troops left. More than 10 suicide attackers have struck security forces, Shiite targets and a Sunni lawmaker since the start of January. — Reuters
