Baghdad – September 11, 2014

1. Various shots of aftermath of Wednesday night bombings

STORYLINE:

Baghdad residents were on Thursday assessing the damage caused by bombings on Wednesday night.

A series of attacks, mainly car bombings targeting security forces and markets, killed at least 30 people in the southeast of the city, authorities said.

Police said a suicide car bomb hit a police post in the al-Ghadeer district, killing six police officers and two civilians.

A sticky bomb attached to a mini-bus exploded elsewhere in southeastern Baghdad, killing three passengers, police said.

Medical officials confirmed the casualties from all the attacks. All officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorised to speak to journalists.

The attacks come after the Islamic State group captured large swathes of territory in western and northern Iraq in a lightning offensive earlier this year, plunging the country into its worst crisis since US troops left at the end of 2011.

Washington has urged Iraq’s feuding factions to set aside their differences to confront the insurgency.

The country’s once-dominant Sunni minority has long complained of being marginalised and discriminated against.

Sunni grievances with Baghdad are seen as one of the main factors fuelling the rise of the Islamic State group.