巴格达汽车炸弹炸死21伤73

 　　BAGHDAD, Aug. 15 (Xinhua) -- A series of car bombs ripped through the Iraqi capital Baghdad on Thursday, killing¹ 21 and wounding 73, the latest wave of attacks in months-long escalation² in violence.

　　The attacks occurred when a total of six car bombings and a roadside bomb struck six crowded areas in Baghdad.

　　One of the car bombs went off in the district of Alawi, near the Green Zone which houses the Iraqi government offices and some foreign embassies, killing four people and wounding 12, a police source told Xinhua on condition of anonymity³.

　　Another car bomb ripped through a parking lot in Baghdad's northern district of Kadhmiyah, killing seven and wounding 20 others, the source said.

　　Meanwhile, a car bomb detonated in Bab al-Mu'dham area in downtown Baghdad, killing five people and wounding 13 others, the source added.

　　Two more car bombs exploded simultaneously⁴ in al-Qanat Street in the eastern part of the capital, killing two people and wounding 10 others, the source added.

　　Furthermore, a car bomb struck the district of Shurta al-Khamsa in southwestern Baghdad, killing three people and wounding 11 more, he said.

　　In addition, a roadside bomb went off in a thoroughfare in Amil district, wounding seven people, he added.

　　No group has so far claimed responsibility for the attacks, but the al-Qaida front in Iraq, in most cases, were responsible for such suicide bombings in the country.

　　The attacks came despite that Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al- Maliki on Wednesday vowed⁵ to continue carrying out offensives against insurgent⁶ groups.

　　"The operations that we launched in hunting down the terrorists and those who stand behind them will continue until we protect our people," Maliki said in a statement.

　　He said that his troops had detained more than 800 suspected militants⁷ and dozens of others were killed in the operations in the Sunni areas in north and west of Baghdad as well as the other Sunni provinces in western and northern the country.

　　Tensions and violence have been at its highest level since the U.S. troops pulled out from the country at the end of 2011.

　　The sectarian tension has been growing since late December 2012, when the Sunni Muslims started their protests against the Shiite- led government in six of Iraq's predominantly Sunni provinces and the Sunni districts in Baghdad.

　　The Sunnis accuse the government of marginalizing them, and claim that the Shiite-dominated Iraqi security forces were indiscriminately arresting and torturing their sons.

　　However, the worst security deterioration⁸ in Iraq began on April 23 after the security forces cracked down on a Sunni Arab protest camp in the northern city of Hawijah. The crackdown sparked fierce clashes across the country's predominantly Sunni provinces between the Sunni tribes and the security forces.

　　Iraq is witnessing its worst eruption⁹ of violence in recent years, which raises fears that the country is sliding back to a full-blown civil conflict that peaked in 2006 and 2007, when monthly death toll¹⁰ sometimes exceeded 3,000.

　　The UN Assistance Mission for Iraq recently reported that over 1,000 Iraqis were killed and more than 2,300 wounded in acts of terrorism and violence in July, the deadliest month in more than five years.

1 killing   

n.巨额利润；突然赚大钱，发大财

参考例句：

• Investors are set to make a killing from the sell-off.投资者准备清仓以便大赚一笔。
• Last week my brother made a killing on Wall Street.上个周我兄弟在华尔街赚了一大笔。

2 escalation   

n.扩大，增加

参考例句：

• The threat of nuclear escalation remains. 核升级的威胁仍旧存在。 来自辞典例句
• Escalation is thus an aspect of deterrence and of crisis management. 因此逐步升级是威慑和危机处理的一个方面。 来自辞典例句

3 anonymity   

n.the condition of being anonymous

参考例句：

• Names of people in the book were changed to preserve anonymity. 为了姓名保密，书中的人用的都是化名。
• Our company promises to preserve the anonymity of all its clients. 我们公司承诺不公开客户的姓名。

4 simultaneously   

adv.同时发生地，同时进行地

参考例句：

• The radar beam can track a number of targets almost simultaneously.雷达波几乎可以同时追着多个目标。
• The Windows allow a computer user to execute multiple programs simultaneously.Windows允许计算机用户同时运行多个程序。

5 vowed   

起誓，发誓（vow的过去式与过去分词形式）

参考例句：

• He vowed quite solemnly that he would carry out his promise. 他非常庄严地发誓要实现他的诺言。
• I vowed to do more of the cooking myself. 我发誓自己要多动手做饭。

6 insurgent   

adj.叛乱的，起事的；n.叛乱分子

参考例句：

• Faruk says they are threatened both by insurgent and government forces.法鲁克说，他们受到暴乱分子和政府军队的双重威胁。
• The insurgent mob assembled at the gate of the city park.叛变的暴徒聚在市立公园的门口。

7 militants   

激进分子，好斗分子( militant的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The militants have been sporadically fighting the government for years. 几年来，反叛分子一直对政府实施零星的战斗。
• Despite the onslaught, Palestinian militants managed to fire off rockets. 尽管如此，巴勒斯坦的激进分子仍然发射导弹。

8 deterioration   

n.退化；恶化；变坏

参考例句：

• Mental and physical deterioration both occur naturally with age. 随着年龄的增长，心智和体力自然衰退。
• The car's bodywork was already showing signs of deterioration. 这辆车的车身已经显示出了劣化迹象。

9 eruption   

n.火山爆发；（战争等）爆发；（疾病等）发作

参考例句：

• The temple was destroyed in the violent eruption of 1470 BC.庙宇在公元前1470年猛烈的火山爆发中摧毁了。
• The eruption of a volcano is spontaneous.火山的爆发是自发的。

10 toll   

n.过路(桥)费；损失，伤亡人数；v.敲(钟)

参考例句：

• The hailstone took a heavy toll of the crops in our village last night.昨晚那场冰雹损坏了我们村的庄稼。
• The war took a heavy toll of human life.这次战争夺去了许多人的生命。