Bombings kill 119 people in Baghdad

Another series of deadly, multiple bombing attacks has killed at least 119 people in Baghdad today. Financial Times reports:

Car bombs killed at least 119 people in Baghdad on Wednesday, hours after Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki said Iraq would take security control of the whole country from foreign forces by the end of the year.

One car bomb alone in the mainly Shia Sadriya neighbourhood killed 75 people and wounded 100, police said

Maliki is under growing pressure to say when U.S. troops will leave, but the rash of at least five bomb attacks in mainly Shia areas underscored the huge security challenges.

The combined attacks were the deadliest in Baghdad since US and Iraqi forces began deploying thousands more troops onto the city’s streets in February under a plan seen as a final attempt to halt Iraq’s slide into sectarian civil war.

The war-torn country is attempting to move forward in handing over control of its provinces from foreign forces to Iraqi security forces.