BACKGROUND: Iraq's worst bomb attacks over past year

Feb 1, 2010, 13:24 GMT

Berlin - The suicide bombing Monday in Baghdad which by initial accounts killed 45 persons became the second major terror bombing in Iraq of 2010 and came less than a week after triple bombings in the capital which killed a reported 38 persons.

Following is a list of the most serious attacks over the past year each of which claimed scores of lives. The list does not include numerous other bombings with smaller numbers of casualties:

-- January 4, 2009: A female suicide bomber kills at least 40 people in Baghdad as Shiite pilgrims are marking the Ashura Festival.

-- February 13, 2009: A female suicide bomber kills 40 people and wounds 83, mainly women and children, near the town of Iskanderiya, south of Baghdad.

-- March 10, 2009: A suicide bomber kills 41 people and wounds 55 in an attack in a market place in the Abu Ghraib neighbourhood of western Baghdad.

-- April 23, 2009: At least 87 people are killed in a wave of attacks. In Diyala province north-west of Baghdad, at least 52 people, mainly Iranian pilgrims, are killed by a suicide bomber. In Baghdad, at least 34 people are killed by a suicide bomber.

-- April 24, 2009: Two suicide attackers killed 60 people making their way to a Shiite shrine in Baghdad.

-- April 29, 2009: A total of 50 people are killed by five car bombs in various parts of Baghdad and its suburbs. The biggest tally is 43 killed by three car bombs in the eastern suburb Sadr City.

-- June 20, 2009: Over 70 people are killed by a truck bomb attack near a Shiite mosque in the town of Tasa, south of the northern city of Kirkuk. Over 200 people are injured.

-- June 24, 2009: At least 74 people are killed, and 150 wounded, in by a bomb in Baghdad. The attack occurred in a busy market square in the chiefly Shiite district of Sadr City.

-- July 7, 2009: More than 70 civilians are killed in a wave of attacks within a period of a few hours around Iraq. The targets are residential areas chiefly inhabited by Shiites and the Shabak religious minority.

-- August 10, 2009: A series of bomb attacks, chiefly targeting Shiites, claims at least 55 lives.

-- August 19, 2009: At least 100 people are killed and some 1,200 wounded in a stunning and coordinated wave of attacks in central Baghdad. Witnesses say some 10 explosions rocked the city.

-- October 25, 2009: Twin suicide truck bombings wreak massive damage in central Baghdad, killing at least 155 people and wounding at least 500.

-- December 8, 2009: Four devastating bombs shake central Baghdad in rapid succession, killing as many as 127 persons and wounding at least 400.

-- December 30, 2009: At least 37 people were killed and 70 injured in three bombings across Iraq.

-- January 26, 2010: A triple car in central Baghdad kills 38 persons in an attack claimed later by an umbrella Islamist group including al-Qaeda's Iraqi wing. The same group had claimed responsibility for the bombings in August and October 2009.