BAGHDAD, Nov 19: Car bombs killed at least 48 people in Iraq on Saturday, a day after more than 80 died in suicide blasts across the country. In the deadliest of Saturday’s attacks, a suicide car bomber blew up his vehicle near crowded condolence tents during the funeral of a Shia tribal sheikh in a town north of Baghdad.

Police Colonel Muthaffar Aboud said 35 people were killed and around 50 wounded in the attack in Abu Sayda, near Baquba, a violent city about 65 km northeast of Baghdad.

Earlier, another suicide car bomber targeted a crowded market in the Diyala Bridge area of southern Baghdad, killing 13 people and wounding around 20, the interior ministry said.

The attacks followed twin suicide bombings at Shia mosques in northeastern Iraq on Friday, strikes that appeared intent on aggravating the country’s sectarian divisions, which have only worsened in the run-up to elections set for Dec 15.

On Saturday, Ibrahim Ahmed, a local government official in Khanaqin, the town where the mosques were attacked, played down reports that several people linked to the bombings had been arrested, saying there were no strong leads in the case.—Reuters