At least two car bombs killed 19 people in Baghdad just hours before Secretary of Defense Ash Carter arrived in Iraq on Thursday, NBC News reported.
One bomb in a market in a Shiite Muslim neighborhood in southern Baghdad on Wednesday night killed 18 and injured 31, according to Gen. Saad Maan, a Ministry of Interior spokesman.
A second bomber drove into a security checkpoint in the north of the city, killing one civilian and injuring six more, Maan added. Security forces killed a another attacker as he tried to detonate his explosive near the same checkpoint, he added.
Carter arrived unannounced in Baghdad to assess the government's progress in healing the country's sectarian divisions and hear the latest on support for the Iraqi army's coming attempt to recapture the key city of Ramadi from ISIS, The Associated Press reported.
Copyright AP - Associated Press
