Seven killed, 17 wounded, by Baghdad car bombs

Two car bombs exploded nearly simultaneously in a Shiite area of Baghdad today, killing at least seven people and wounding 17.

The first attack hit a car repair shop on the edge of the Shiite slum of Sadr City, wounding at least six people, police Lt. Bilal Ali said.

A suicide car bomber then drove into the crowd that had gathered near the site and detonated his explosives, killing seven people and wounding 11 more, according to officials from two hospitals that received the victims.

The bombings came a day after masked Shiite gunmen ambushed Sunni Arabs in western Baghdad in a rampage that killed 41 people amid a dramatic escalation of sectarian violence.