At least 9 killed in Baghdad bombings

A series of bombings struck the Iraqi capital on Thursday morning, killing at least nine people and wounding more than 30, officials said. The three car bombs and a roadside bomb hit three different areas of Baghdad -- two of them Shiite-majority, and another a mix of Sunnis and Shiites. One of the car bombs exploded near an office of Al-Ahad television, which is affiliated with Asaib Ahl al-Haq, a militant group that split from powerful Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr's Mahdi Army. Violence in Iraq has increased markedly this year, with analysts saying the upsurge is driven by anger among the Sunni Arab minority that the Shiite-led government has failed to address, despite months of protests. Attacks have killed more than 3,450 people in Iraq since the beginning of 2013, according to figures compiled by AFP -- an average over 15 per day.