Dozens slaughtered in Iraqi violence

Dozens of people have been slaughtered in eight separate attacks in [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.], including five kidnapped Iraqi soldiers and an eight-year-old child, officials said.

The boldest attack was near the northern Iraqi city of [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.], where militants set up a fake checkpoint, captured five soldiers and shot them dead, a police officer said.

Inside Mosul, other gunmen in a speeding car shot and killed a grocer, he said.

Another police officer said a car bomb exploded as a judge drove past in Balad, killing three nurses and a man. Thirteen people were wounded, including the judge, his brother and the driver, he added.

In [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]'s largely Shi'ite neighbourhood of al-Ameen, a car bomb at a market killed three civilians and wounded 13 others, a police officer said.

Three civilians were killed and six wounded when a bomb attached to a car exploded while passing through the capital's eastern Zayona neighbourhood. Another bomb went off in the western Ghazaliya area, killing two people and wounding seven others.

In the town of Madain, about 25km south-east of Baghdad, a car bomb explosion killed four civilians and wounded 12.

Also yesterday, a bomb exploded near a policeman's house close to the city of Baqouba, killing his eight-year-old son.

Attacks have been on the rise in [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.] since a deadly security crackdown in April on a Sunni protest camp. More than 3,000 people have been killed in the past few months.

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(Ahlul Bayt News Agency) -  A series of bomb attacks across Iraq has killed at least 60 people which is mostly Shiite Muslims and wounded at least another 80, medical officials have confirmed.

In Baquba, there were reports of four bombings. Two are said to have targeted a Shia wedding, AFP news agency reports.

The blasts in Baghdad and the northern city of Baquba on Sunday were caused by car and roadside bombings, according to police and local officials.

The death toll was put at 46 or 47 by different police and hospital officials. The deadliest of the attacks took place in the centre of Baquba when a car bomb exploded outside an apartment block killing at least seven people, although some reports estimated up to 11 died in the blast. Another 34 people were wounded.

A second bombing in Baquba, close to a Shia wedding party convoy, killed four and wounded 17.

Iraqi authorities said there was a further bombing inside a coffee shop in Baghdad's Shaab neighbourhood, which killed three and wounded 16. There were reports that the car bomb exploded a center to perform exams belong to the Shiite Endowment in al-Ameen neighborhood of southeastern Baghdad killed three civilians and wounded 13 others.

Three other civilians were killed and six wounded when a bomb attached to a car exploded while passing through the capital's eastern Zayona neighbourhood, according to police. Another bomb went off in a commercial area in the western Ghazaliya area, killing two people and wounding seven others, officials said.

Iraqi authorities said a blast killed four and wounded 13 youths who were playing football in Madain, to the south of the Iraqi capital.

The Associated Press cited hospital officials, who confirmed the casualty figures on condition of anonymity because they were not authorised to release the information. It also reported an unnamed police officer's claim of an attack near the northern city of Mosul, where militants reportedly set up a fake security checkpoint, captured five soldiers and shot them dead. He added that the soldiers were dressed in civilian clothes and returning to base in a taxi.

In Mosul, gunmen in a speeding car shot and killed a grocer, he said, though the motive was not immediately clear. The grocer was a member of the Shabak ethnic group, which has its own distinct language and religious beliefs.

Another police officer said a car bomb exploded as a judge drove past in the northern town of Balad, killed eight persons including four nurses and a man who had been walking nearby. Thirteen other people were wounded, including the judge, his brother and a driver, he added, while reports from Nineveh province says five soldiers died when their vehicle was fired on.

The bombings came after one of the worst spates of violence in Iraq, with more than 670 killed (mostly Shiite Muslims) during month of Ramadan, which ended in early August.

Reports have suggested that more than 3,000 people have been killed in the past few months, raising fears that Iraq could see a renewed wave of sectarian bloodshed, similar to that which brought the country close to civil war in 2006 and 2007.

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PanARMENIAN.Net - Insurgents bent on destabilizing Iraq have killed at least 41 people in numerous attacks scattered around the country, striking targets including a coffee shop, a wedding party convoy and a carload of off-duty soldiers, according to Belfast Telegraph.

The attacks are part of a months-long wave of killing that is the country's worst spate of bloodshed since 2008.

The violence is calling into question the security forces' ability to protect the country and raising fears that Iraq's sectarian and ethnic divisions are pushing it back towards the brink of civil war.

One of the day's boldest attacks happened near the northern Iraqi city of Mosul, where militants set up a fake security checkpoint, captured five soldiers and shot them dead, said a police officer. The soldiers were dressed in civilian clothes and returning to base in a taxi.

In the capital Baghdad, a car bomb at a market in the south-eastern and largely Shiite neighbourhood of al-Ameen killed three civilians and wounded 13 others, authorities said. Three other civilians were killed and six wounded when a bomb attached to a car exploded while passing through the capital's eastern Zayona neighbourhood, police said. Another bomb went off in a commercial area in the western Ghazaliya area, killing two people and wounding seven others, officials said.

Later in the evening, police said a bomb tore through a coffee shop, killing three and wounding 16 others in Baghdad's northern Shaab neighbourhood.

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Car bombs, roadside bombs and shootings killed at least 47 people in Iraq on Sunday, police and medical sources said, as tensions intensify between Sunni and Shia Muslims across the Middle East.

Sunni Muslim insurgents and the al Qaeda-affiliated Islamic State of Iraq have significantly increased their attacks this year.

More than 1,000 Iraqis were killed in July, the highest monthly death toll since 2008, according to the United Nations.

More than two years of civil war in neighbouring Syria have aggravated deep-rooted sectarian divisions and shaken Iraq’s fragile coalition of Shia, Kurdish and Sunni factions.

The renewed violence, eighteen months after the last US troops withdrew from Iraq, has sparked fears of a return to the scale sectarian slaughter in 2006 and 2007.

Iraqis have suffered extreme violence for years, but since the start of 2013 the intensity of attacks on civilians has dramatically increased.

Bomb attacks have increasingly targeted cafes and other places where families gather, as well as the usual targets of military facilities and checkpoints.

The biggest of Sunday’s attacks took place in central Baquba, 65 km (40 miles) northeast of Baghdad when a car bomb blew up near a housing complex, killing at least 11 people and wounding 34, police said.

Earlier attacks included the killing of five soldiers in Qiyara town, some 290 km (180 miles) north of the Iraqi capital, when suspected militants ambushed two taxis taking soldiers from Baghdad to join their units in Mosul, military sources said.

“One of the cars escaped the ambush but the second one could not and the militants shot dead five soldiers and burned their bodies after they killed them,” a senior intelligence military officer, who declined to be named, said.

A medical source at the morgue in Mosul confirmed the soldiers’ bodies had been burned.

Police said that seven people were also killed and 30 others were injured in two separate explosions in Madaen, about 30 km (20 miles) southeast of Baghdad.

Another two explosions took place in commercial areas in western and northern Baghdad, killing 12 people and wounding 45, police and medical sources said.

A bomb stuck to a car killed three people and wounded four in eastern Baghdad, police and medical sources said.

Earlier on Sunday, police said three people were killed and 15 wounded when a car bomb exploded in Balad, 80 km (50 miles) north of Baghdad. Two people were shot dead near their homes in eastern Mosul, 390 km (240 miles) north of Baghdad, police said.

Roadside bombs also killed two members of a displaced Shia family who had recently returned to their home. The attack wounded nine others in central Baquba, police said.

No group immediately claimed responsibility for Sunday’s attacks but Sunni Islamist militants have been regaining momentum in their insurgency against the Shia-led government in recent months, emboldened by the civil war in Syria.

On Friday, a suicide bomber killed 25 people and wounded more than 50 in Baghdad when he detonated his explosives inside a busy cafe near a park.


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Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki has vowed to press on with his anti-insurgency campaign, which has reportedly led to the arrest of hundreds of alleged militants and the killing of dozens.

A series of attacks in Baghdad and north Iraq killed 48 people today amid a surge in violence that authorities have failed to stem despite wide-ranging operations targeting militants.

Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki has vowed to press on with his anti-insurgency campaign, which has reportedly led to the arrest of hundreds of alleged militants and the killing of dozens.

But analysts and diplomats say authorities have failed to tackle the root causes of Iraq's worst violence since 2008: anger in the Sunni Arab community over perceived ill-treatment by the Shiite-led authorities and security forces.

Today's violence, which left more than 100 people wounded, struck the Baghdad area and predominantly Sunni Arab towns and cities to the north, but the deadliest of the attacks hit the capital.

A series of bombings -- two car bombings and a roadside bomb -- went off between 4:00 pm (1830 IST) and 5:30 pm (2000 IST) in Baghdad and its outskirts, killing nine people and wounding 22 others, officials said.

The blasts struck a variety of neighbourhoods across the city, and were the latest in a burgeoning trend of militant attacks in the afternoon and evening in Baghdad.

In previous years, deadly attacks have typically struck during the morning rush-hour when much of the capital is in gridlock.
Along with the spate of blasts, two other bombings in Baghdad killed nine and wounded 29.

Attacks also struck Diyala, Salaheddin and Nineveh provinces to the north of the capital.

The worst hit the confessionally-mixed city of Baquba, capital of Diyala, where 17 people were killed in all.

A car bomb in a market area on the western outskirts of the city killed 11 people and wounded 34 others, while a bombing at a Shiite Muslim wedding in central Baquba killed five people and wounded eight others.

Earlier, explosions against the home of a recently-returned family that had been displaced within Iraq killed a child and wounded nine other members of the family.

In Salaheddin, a car bomb near the town of Balad killed five people and wounded 21 others, among them a senior judge who was the apparent target of the blast.

In restive Nineveh province, gunmen opened fire on a van ferrying soldiers from Baghdad to their unit in the provincial capital Mosul, killing five of them.

Also in Nineveh, three separate attacks by gunmen left a soldier and two civilians dead, including a member of the Shabak minority.

The 30,000-strong Shabak community mostly lives near Iraq's border with Turkey.

They speak a distinct language and largely follow a faith that is a blend of Shiite Islam and local beliefs. Shabaks are frequently targeted in attacks by militants.

Violence has markedly increased in Iraq this year.

Attacks have killed more than 3,600 people since the beginning of 2013, according to figures compiled by AFP.

The surge in violence has raised concerns that Iraq is teetering on the brink of a return to the all-out sectarian war in 2006-2008 that left tens of thousands dead.

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