Six killed in two Baghdad attacks

BAGHDAD – Two attacks killed at least six people Saturday in the Iraqi capital, where police also discovered nine bodies, some of them riddled with bullets, officials said.

The bloodshed comes a day after a coordinated bomb attack on a campaign rally for a militant Shiite group killed at least 33 people, fueling fears that Iraq’s already-simmering sectarian tensions could boil over into retaliatory violence just days ahead of critical parliamentary elections.

In what some feared could also be more retaliatory killings, police on Saturday found nine bodies, some bullet-riddled, in several Sunni and Shiite districts of the Iraqi capital, security officials said. The bodies could not be immediately identified.

Other bodies have been found in similar attacks reminiscent of the worst days of Iraq’s sectarian violence between 2006 and 2008.