Violence in Baghdad suburbs kills 21: sources

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - At least 21 people, mostly civilians, were killed on Thursday in the outskirts of Baghdad by explosions at five separate locations and a shooting, security and medical sources said. Bombs went off in two towns south of the Iraqi capital, killing seven people and wounding 19 others. Unknown assailants also attacked an army checkpoint in the western suburb of Abu Ghraib, killing three soldiers and wounding seven. Later in the day, two suicide bombers attacked the headquarters of a Sunni Sahwa militia in the al-Mashahida area on the northern outskirts of Baghdad, killing seven and wounding 21 others. A car bomb then went off at a security checkpoint in the Sunni farming district of Tarmiya, north of the capital, killing three policemen and a civilian. Eleven others were wounded. Bombings are frequent in Baghdad, where Sunni insurgents from Islamic State, which controls large swathes of territory in Iraq's north and west, regularly target Shi'ite neighborhoods with car bombs. (Reporting by Stephen Kalin; Editing by Susan Fenton)