Car Bombs and Suicide Attack Kill at Least 21 in Iraq

No one has claimed responsibility

(Reuters)—Car bombs and a suicide attack tore through food markets in two Iraqi towns north of Baghdad on Monday, killing at least 21 people in unrest apparently caused by militants determined to provoke civil war.

No group claimed responsibility for Monday's attacks, but officials blame most of the sectarian violence that has killed nearly 2,000 people since April on Sunni Islamist insurgents linked to al Qaeda's local wing.

Officials said two car bombs exploded and a suicide bomber in another vehicle detonated his explosives in a food market in the mostly Shi'ite Muslim town of Jadidat al-Shatt in Diyala province, 40 km (25 miles) north of the capital.