BAGHDAD, Nov. 2 (UPI) -- At least 17 bombs reverberated in Shiite neighborhoods across Baghdad Tuesday, killing at least 113 people and injuring scores more, officials said.
The car bombs and other explosive devices went off at sunset, just two days after 58 Christian worshipers were killed after armed men took over a Baghdad church, the Los Angeles Times reported.
"The new [al-]Qaida has started its work again in Iraq," a senior Iraqi security commander told the Times on condition of anonymity. "The situation is very bad."
The officer said Iraq's political impasse was putting the nation in jeopardy and cautioned that Iraq's political deadlock was tempting disaster. He said the violence is getting worse.
"Maybe it will be worse than 2005 if the government doesn't form," the commander said.
The Christian Science Monitor reported the bombs, which also left about 250 injured, struck the city within an hour and a half.
"We don't know what's happening right now," an Interior Ministry official who did not want to be identified told the online U.S. newspaper. "There are so many explosions and so many reports right now, we're overwhelmed."
CNN reported the explosions included at least 10 car bombs, three roadside bombs and a so-called sticky bomb that's usually placed on or under a vehicle among the explosions.
Targets included a shopping area, a crowded restaurant and a Sunni mosque, The New York Times reported.
A U.S. military spokesman said Iraqi police had not requested assistance from U.S. advisory units in the city, CNN said.
Explosions shook the Shiite neighborhoods of Kadhimiya, Amil, Bayaa and Shulas, Ur and Zuhour in the northeast, Sadr City, Kamaliya and Amin and Abu Dhsir, CNN said.
Other blasts were reported in mixed Shiite-Sunni Muslim neighborhoods.
U.S. military officials said the bombings bore all the hallmarks of al-Qaida in Iraq.
"Today was a well-planned, organized, calculated attack on Shiite neighborhoods to ignite sectarian violence again to push us back to 2006," the Los Angeles Times quoted Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari as saying. "This needs a great deal of leadership, self-restraint and focus not to fall into the trap of the terrorists.
"The one value added from this horrible massacre of people will be to pressure the politicians and the leaders that the time is now. You must form the government as soon as possible."
