Half-hour bomb barrage kills 47 in Baghdad

A barrage of co-ordinated bomb and rocket attacks in eastern Baghdad killed at least 47 people and wounded more than 200 within half an hour, police and hospital officials said.

The latest spasm of violence yesterday – which included explosives planted in apartments, car bombs and several rocket and mortar attacks on mainly Shiite neighbourhoods in the capital – came even as Prime Minister Nouri Maliki said Iraqi forces should have control over most of the country by year’s end.