At least 16 Iraqis killed in Baghdad blasts

Simultaneous suicide and roadside bomb blasts in the same central Baghdad street killed at least 16 Iraqis and wounded 25 today.

A man with an explosives belt strapped around his waist walked into a crowded coffee shop in downtown Baghdad’s Saadoun Street and detonated his bomb, killing 12 people and wounding 20, said police Maj. Mohammed Younis.

Just seconds later, a bomb planted underneath a parked car outside the nearby al-Mathak restaurant exploded, killing at least four people and wounding five, including two women, Younis added.

Alaa Abid Ali, a medic at Baghdad’s Kindi Hospital, said 16 bodies had been received from the attack scene.