BAGHDAD — Shattering the relative calm that had prevailed in the capital for months, five car bombs exploded in different neighborhoods here on Sunday morning, killing at least 6 people and wounding 30. The military defused another three bombs.  An Iraqi policeman stood in front of a destroyed car after a bombing in Baghdad on Sunday.  Other parts of the country have recently been hit by large-scale attacks, mainly against security forces and religious pilgrims, but until Sunday Baghdad had been spared.  The attacks began shortly after 7 a.m., despite heightened security for the Shiite holiday of Arbaeen, which is often a time of sectarian violence.  The bombs struck Sunni neighborhoods as well as Shiite areas. Two appeared directed at security forces and one at Iranian pilgrims marching to observe Arbaeen, which commemorates the end of the 40-day mourning period for the death of Imam Hussein ibn Ali, the grandson of the Prophet Muhammad. The targets of the other two bombs were unclear.  At least two of the cars used were taxis whose bombs were detonated when police officers were nearby, suggesting that they were set off remotely by people who were keeping watch.  The use of taxis “is a new technique,” said a bomb squad officer, noting that cabs draw less attention than private cars at checkpoints or when parked on the street. The officer spoke on the condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to talk to reporters.  Before the attacks, Lt. Gen. Robert Cone, the deputy commanding general for operations of the American forces in Iraq, had credited Iraqi security forces for keeping Baghdad safe, saying that they had forced extremists to strike elsewhere.  Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki, who began his second term in office last month, had made security a main plank of his campaign. But he has yet to appoint leaders for the ministries that oversee the police and military, a fact that one lawmaker blamed for the bombings. “Such attacks will continue as long as the security ministries are without leaders,” said Udai Awad, who is allied with the fiery cleric Moktada al-Sadr.  Shiite religious marches, which take place several times a year, also test the police and army’s effectiveness.  Violence in Iraq remains lower than in previous years, but in the last week devastating attacks have occurred in Tikrit and Baquba north of Baghdad and in Karbala to the south. The attacks followed large-scale arrests of terrorism suspects, and may have been intended as retaliation.  On Tuesday, a suicide bomber blew himself up in a crowd of police recruits in Tikrit, killing at least 49 people and wounding 119. The next day, an ambulance loaded with an estimated 450 pounds of explosives detonated outside a police building in Baquba, killing at least 5 people and wounding 76.  On Thursday, three car bombs exploded nearly simultaneously on the roads to Karbala, where as many as 10 million Shiites are expected to gather to commemorate the death of Imam Hussein. The bombs killed at least 52 people and wounded three times as many.  Lt. Omer Ahmed of the Iraqi police said that the choice of targets in both Sunni and Shiite areas suggested that the bombings were the work of foreign militants who were trying to inflame sectarian tensions. “We need to change our strategic officers and plans,” he said. “We have been working according to what we were taught by Americans, not according to the real truth — that we are facing a kind of enemy who is playing on sectarian chords for the mass elimination of Iraqis without exceptions.” The main Sunni militant group, Al Qaeda in Mesopotamia, and its affiliate, the Islamic State of Iraq, which are both homegrown insurgent groups that are believed to have some foreign leadership, have often carried out attacks aimed at provoking sectarian conflict.  On Saturday, security forces announced the arrest of a leader in the Sunni Awakening, the government-backed militia composed in part of former insurgents, for the attack against the Shiite pilgrims near Karbala. The Awakening’s leaders have long been frustrated that they were not being hired quickly enough by the security forces or other government agencies.  Members of the Awakening Council have often been targets of attacks.  Yasir Ghazi, Omar al-Jawoshy and an Iraqi employee of The New York Times contributed reporting.
At least six people were killed and 30 injured, in an attack that shattered a months-long period of relative calm in the capital.