Car bombings kill 38 in Baghdad

BAGHDAD, Oct. 11 (UPI) -- Three car bombings in mainly Shia areas of Iraq's capital killed at least 38 people Saturday, while coalition air strikes targeted Islamic State forces to the north.

The attacks began Saturday night when a suicide bomber rammed a military checkpoint in the northern Baghdad district of Kadhimiya, killing about a dozen and wounding several more.

Two more attacks in the Shula district, a neighborhood in northwestern Baghdad, targeted a commercial street and a security checkpoint, killing 26 and wounding dozens more.

No group has claimed responsibility for the bombings, but such attacks by Sunnis against Shiites -- and vice versa -- have been commonplace in Iraq for years.

Meanwhile U.S. Central Command, which oversees U.S. military operations in the Middle East and portions of North Africa, reported air strikes north of Tal Afar Saturday that hit a small unit of Islamic State fighters and destroyed an armed vehicle.

The air strikes came a day after the U.S. military dropped food, water and 16,000 pounds of ammunition to Iraqi security forces engaged with IS forces around the city of Bayji.