Car bomb attacks strike Iraq

(Vatican Radio) At least 37 people are dead after a series of car bomb attacks across Iraq Thursday. Three of the attacks targeted restaurants and a market in Shiite districts in the capital, Baghdad, while the fourth targeted a Kurdish neighbourhood in the oil-rich northern city of Kirkuk. Iraq sees near-daily bombings and other attacks mainly targeting Shiite neighbourhoods and security forces. The attacks are often claimed by the Sunni extremist Islamic State group which seized much of northern and western Iraq in a summer offensive.