Central Baghdad twin IED blast wounds 1 civilian

Baghdad (IraqiNews.com) A civilian was wounded on Wednesday when two IEDs exploded in central Baghdad, a security source has said.

The bomb went off inside an alley near an oil station in Fadwat Arab, and originally targeted an alcoholics shop, the source told Alsumaria News.

A civilian was passing by at the moment of the explosion and was wounded, while a number of shops sustained damages from the blast.

Violence surged across Iraq as Islamic State extremists captured several Iraqi cities in 2014, and continues even as the group is sustaining defeats during a current wide-scale campaign by Iraqi forces and tribal militias.

The United Nations Assistance Mission in Iraq (UNAMI) said early December that violence during November claimed the lives of 926 civilians and wounded 930 people.

Observers believe ISIS have begun to target several areas across Iraq to divert security focus on Mosul, where the group fights to defend its last bastion in Iraq under the brunt of continuous advancements by Iraqi government and popular troops.