Bombings near Baghdad market kill at least 22

Baghdad: Bombings near a market in a Shiite area of northern Baghdad killed at least 22 people on Sunday, security and medical officials said.

The blasts in the Sadr City area, at least one of which was a suicide bombing, also wounded at least 55 people.

The bombings were the deadliest attacks to hit the capital this year.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attacks, but suicide bombings are a tactic almost exclusively employed in Iraq by Sunni militants, especially members of the Islamic State jihadist group.

IS considers Shiite Muslims, who make up the majority of Iraq's population, to be heretics and frequently targets them with bombings and other attacks.

The jihadist group, which overran swathes of Iraq in 2014, claimed twin suicide bombings targeting Shiite worshippers on Thursday that killed at least nine people.

Those bombings took place in Shuala, another Shiite-majority area in northern Baghdad.

While attacks are still common in Baghdad, violence in the capital has decreased significantly since IS launched a sweeping offensive in June 2014, after which many of its militants became occupied with fighting in other areas.