ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - Two bomb blasts in Baghdad on Thursday claimed the lives of 16 civilians, said the Iraqi government. "Roadside bombs in the neighborhood of Mahmoudia, in southern Baghdad killed two civilians and wounded eight," the Iraqi interior ministry told Rudaw, adding that "another blast simultaneously went off in the area of Sab'u Libor, northern Baghdad, killing five persons." Security forces and medical teams rushed to the scene and transferred the wounded to the hospital "and the dead to the morgue," Iraq has seen two of its deadliest months from violent attacks on civilians. Thursday's blasts come amid a major Iraqi army offensive to retake the western city of Ramadi from Islamic State (ISIS) militants. Earlier in the day the army reported that it had killed an ISIS bombs and explosives expert in Samarra north of the capital Baghdad.
