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Wave of Bombings in Baghdad Kills 28


A wave of bomb attacks around Baghdad killed 28 people on Tuesday, as at least seven explosions struck in or near the Iraqi capital, police and medical sources said.

Fifteen people were killed in the Jisr Diyala district, southeast of the city, in two blasts on Tuesday evening, one of them caused by a car bomb. Earlier, five other explosions hit northern and southern neighborhoods, the sources said.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attacks, which come as Iraqi security forces battle Islamic State militants who control large areas of north and west Iraq, and who have claimed many recent bombings in Baghdad.

In the western province of Anbar, Iraqi troops backed by Shi'ite militia and tribal fighters are trying to drive Islamic State fighters out of al-Baghdadi on the Euphrates River.

The town is just five km (3 miles) east of the Ain al-Asad airbase where U.S. Marines are training Iraqi forces for a larger offensive against Islamic State.

A U.S. official said last week that an assault to recapture the northern city of Mosul, the largest city under Islamic State control, would probably be launched in April or May.

Iraqi military officials have declined to confirm such a timetable, but Iraqi troops and militia forces have been gathering for an expected offensive against the militants further south in Salahuddin province, between Baghdad and Mosul.

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    Reuters

    Reuters is a news agency founded in 1851 and owned by the Thomson Reuters Corporation based in Toronto, Canada. One of the world's largest wire services, it provides financial news as well as international coverage in over 16 languages to more than 1000 newspapers and 750 broadcasters around the globe.

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