Baghdad:
Iraqi officials say a pair of car bombs have torn through two different neighborhoods in Baghdad, killing 21 people and wounding dozens of others.
The nearly simultaneous blasts Sunday morning broke a period of relative calm since the end of the holy month of Ramadan nearly two weeks ago and underlined the challenges in protecting Iraq's capital.
Army Brigadier General Ali Fathal, who is responsible for the west of the city, said 12 people were killed when a car bomb exploded in western Baghdad's affluent Mansour neighborhood near a mobile phone office.
He said 10 people were also wounded in the attack.
Police and hospital sources said that minutes later another car bomb exploded in the northern sector of Baghdad, killing at least nine and wounding 38 others.