Auto bomb blasts in Baghdad killed 20 people

20 Iraqis were killed and 52 others wounded when two auto bombs exploded on Tuesday in the Iraqi capital Baghdad, Iraqi police source said.

The first attack wreaked havoc in the center of a busy downtown street in the neighborhood of al-Jadida on the eastern side of the capital.

Separately, seven troops and allied militiamen were killed and four others wounded in a clash with the IS militants in Albu Haiyat area, just east of the town of Haditah, which itself located some 200 km northwest of Baghdad, the source said.

According to a police colonel, “seventeen people were killed and 43 wounded”, was the total from the terrorist incident.

No group has claimed the attacks, although they bear the hallmarks of attacks by ISIL, a terrorist group which is in control of some territories west and north of Iraq.

ISIS has been behind much of the violence around Iraq in recent years, taking over vast swaths of the country and neighboring Syria.

One of the most gruesome such attacks happened late last week on the eve of Eid al-Fitr, a joyous Muslim holiday marking the end of Ramadan. ISIS claimed responsibility for that carnage on Twitter.