Spate of deadly bombings rock Iraq before Shiite holy month
At least 14 people were killed and hundreds more injured in a series of apparently coordinated explosions in cities across Iraq.
At least 14 people were killed and hundreds more injured in a series of apparently coordinated explosions in cities across Iraq.
鈥� A daily summary of global reports on security issues.
A series of bombings across Iraq killed at least 14 people today and injured hundreds, highlighting the protracted challenge of sectarian violence in a country that only recently emerged from war.
Some 11 bombings and shootings took place in seven Iraqi cities, including the capital of Baghdad, in what Agence France-Presse called 鈥渁 spate of apparently coordinated attacks.鈥�
The attacks took place on the eve of the Muslim festival marking the start of the Islamic New Year. Muharram, as the holy month is called, is of particular importance on the Shiite Muslim religious calendar, reports the BBC. A majority of Iraq's population is Shiite, and its religious festivals have been targeted by violence in the past by Sunni extremists.
There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attacks, but AFP notes that 鈥淎l-Qaeda's front group in Iraq frequently carries out coordinated bombings and attempts mass-casualty attacks in a bid to destabilise the government through fomenting bloodshed.鈥�
Security, or a lack of, is a common theme in Iraq, as the Shiite-dominated government continues to struggle with Sunni Islamists and Al Qaeda affiliates seeking to undermine it.聽 Although US troops withdrew from the country nearly a year ago and the war is over, there has never been a successful reconciliation between Iraq's Sunnis and Shiites 鈥� nor is the government apt to seek one, the Monitor's Dan Murphy wrote after a similar spate of bombings this summer.
Today's deadliest attacks took place in the city of Kirkuk, about 175 miles north of Baghdad. The oil-rich region is home to Kurds, Arabs, and Turkomen, all of whom are competing to control Kirkuk, reports the Associated Press.
The first bomb detonated in a parked car near the Kurdish political party鈥檚 offices there this morning, and a second bomb exploded when medical personnel and rescuers arrived on the scene. Five were killed in what is often referred to as a 鈥渄ouble bombing,鈥� a well-known insurgent tactic, reports the AP.
Although violence across Iraq has dropped precipitously since its height in 2006 and 2007, September was the deadliest month in Iraq in the past two years, with a death toll of 365 people, according to Voice of America.
An hour after the first bombs in Kirkuk, another five people were killed by an explosion in a parked car near an Iraqi army patrol in the nearby city of Hawija, reports AP.
Some 60 miles south of Baghdad in the town of Hilla,聽another car bomb detonated. "A car bomb exploded near a secondary school for girls and a crowded poultry market, leaving four dead, including innocent students. It's a real vicious terrorist act," Hamza Kadhim, a local official in Hilla told Reuters.聽
Blasts were also reported in Baghdad's Firdous Square, and in the central province of Diyala.