Latest attack on Shiites kills 12 in Baghdad

Another 29 people were injured as a crowded restaurant, a police patrol and several other targets were hit yesterday.

Violence has fallen in Iraq since a wave of sectarian bloodshed in 2006 and 2007, but insurgents frequently attack security forces and civilians to try to undermine the Shiite-led government.

In north-west Baghdad, a parked car exploded outside a crowded restaurant in the Shiite neighbourhood of Shula, killing eight people and wounding 13, police said.

Elsewhere, a parked car blew up near the home of an adviser to Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, killing a civilian and wounding four people.

Earlier, explosions hit two adjacent homes of policemen in a Sunni neighbourhood, killing two and wounding nine, among them three children. One policemen was killed and another wounded.

A fifth attack targeted a police patrol in Baghdad, killing a policeman and wounding three officers.

Despite less violence in recent years, bombings remain common. On April 19, bombs killed 30 people in 10 Iraqi cities.

Criticism of Mr al-Maliki is increasing within the ruling coalition, amid complaints he is shutting out Iraq’s two main minorities – Kurds and Sunni Muslims – in decision-making.