Three killed in triple bombing at Baghdad pool hall

BAGHDAD: At least 3 people were killed and 19 were wounded on Saturday when 3 bombs exploded in and around a pool hall in southern Baghdad, an interior ministry official told AFP.

The blasts occurred in Al-Amel, a mostly Shiite district of the capital, inside the hall and at the front and rear entrances at around 9:30 pm (1830 GMT) the official said.

"Three were killed and 19 injured," he said. The explosions followed a series of car bombs in mostly Shiite areas of Baghdad on Friday, in which 54 people were killed and 201 wounded, according to a new toll released by the health ministry on Saturday.

Those attacks were seen as retaliation from Al-Qaeda just four days after the government announced that the jihadist network's top 2 commanders in Iraq had been killed in an Iraq-US military raid on their hideout north of Baghdad.