Four blasts kill 29, wounds dozens in Iraq's capital

Four bombs in mainly Shi'ite Muslim areas in Baghdad killed at least 29 people and wounded dozens of others on Thursday, police and hospital sources said, as fears of renewed sectarian strife in Iraq increase.

Shi'ite Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki sparked the worst political crisis in a year on December 19 when he sought the removal of two senior Sunni politicians just as U.S. troops withdrew from Iraq. Bombings on December 22 in the predominately Shi'ite parts of Iraq's capital killed 72.

On Thursday, in Baghdad's northeastern impoverished Sadr City slum, a bomb planted on a parked motorcycle and another roadside explosive killed at least 10 people and wounded 37 others, police and hospital sources said.

Police said they found and defused two other bombs.

"There was a group of day laborers gathered, waiting to be hired for work. Someone brought his small motorcycle and parked it nearby. A few minutes later it blew up, killed some people, wounded others and burned some cars," said a police officer at the scene, declining to be named.