78 killed, 166 wounded in attacks across Iraq

BAGHDAD --

A suicide bomber blew himself up among a crowd of Shiite pilgrims passing through a mainly Sunni neighborhood in Baghdad and another detonated his explosives inside a cafe north of the capital, the deadliest of several attacks across Iraq on Saturday that killed at least 66 people.

The killings, which also included attacks on journalists and anti-extremist Sunni fighters, are part of the deadliest surge in violence to hit Iraq in five years. The accelerating bloodshed is raising fears that the country is falling back into the spiral of violence that brought it to the edge of civil war in the years after the 2003 U.S.-led invasion.

The extent of the carnage from the evening attack on the pilgrims became clearer as midnight approached, when officials sharply revised the death toll upward to at least 42. Another 80 were reported injured.

The bomber detonated his explosives at a checkpoint in the northern neighborhood of Azamiyah as the pilgrims were en route to a prominent Shiite shrine in the nearby neighborhood of Kazimiyah, according to police officials. At least four policemen manning the checkpoint were among the dead, the officials said.

Azamiyah and the Shiite district of Kazimiyah sit on opposite sides of the Tigris River that snakes through the Iraqi capital. Their proximity made them a key flashpoint for the widespread sectarian conflict that gripped Iraq after Saddam Hussein's ouster and peaked in 2006 and 2007. Authorities closed the bridge between the neighborhoods after hundreds of Shiite pilgrims died in a 2005 stampede sparked by fears of a suicide bomber, and reopened it in 2008.

Around the same time, another suicide bomber blew himself up in a cafe in the town of Balad, a largely Shiite town surrounded by Sunni communities about 50 miles north of Baghdad. Balad Mayor Malik Lefta said at least 13 people were killed and 22 were wounded in that attack.

He said the cafe was the same one hit by a deadly suicide bombing in August.

A hidden bomb also exploded inside a cafe in the religiously mixed Baghdad neighborhood of Baiyaa, killing three people and wounding 13, police said.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the day's violence. Al-Qaida's Iraq arm often deploys suicide bombers and targets Shiite civilians in an effort to undermine confidence in the Shiite-led government.

Earlier in the day, gunmen shot dead a reporter and a cameraman for the privately owned al-Sharqiya TV channel while they were working on a report in the northern city of Mosul, according to police. The city is a former Sunni insurgent stronghold that has been one of the hardest areas of Iraq to tame.

Al-Sharqiya identified the correspondent as Mohammed Karim al-Badrani and the cameraman as Mohammed Ghanem. It was not immediately clear why they were targeted.

Al-Sharqiya is one of several independent channels that took to the airwaves following the 2003 ouster of former dictator Saddam Hussein. It has drawn the ire of the current Shiite-led government with critical reports highlighting corruption, poor services and other shortcomings. Authorities suspended its license along with those of eight other Iraqi channels and pan-Arab broadcaster Al-Jazeera in April after accusing them of inflaming sectarian tensions.

At least six members of Sunni militias opposed to al-Qaida were also killed Saturday. The militiamen were members of the Sahwa, which joined U.S. troops in the fight against al-Qaida at the height of Iraq war. Its members have since been frequently targeted by Sunni insurgents, who consider them traitors.

Gunmen attacked a two car convoy carrying local Sahwa leader Issa al-Sabeel in the predominantly Sunni town of Hawija, said police chief Col. Fattah Mahmoud Yassin. He said the militia leader survived but three of his bodyguards were killed.
Hawija, 150 miles north of Baghdad, was the scene of a deadly shooting at an anti-government protest by Iraqi security forces in April.

A bomb also hit a checkpoint manned by Sahwa members in the town of Youssifiyah, south of the Iraqi capital, killing three of the fighters and wounding five other people, police said.

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At least 78 people were killed and 166 others wounded in a wave of violent attacks across Iraq Saturday, including a deadly suicide bombing targeting Shiite pilgrims here, police and media said.

At least 51 people were killed and 107 others wounded Saturday evening when a suicide bomber detonated his explosive vest near Shiite pilgrims in the Adhamiya area in northern Baghdad, Xinhua reported citing a police source. 

The pilgrims were on their way to the Al-Kadhimiya mosque in the Kadhimiya neighbourhood in northern Baghdad, he added.

Also Saturday evening, at least 11 people were killed and 35 others wounded when a car bomb exploded near a popular cafe in Balad town, some 80 km north of Baghdad, a police source said.

One civilian was killed and 10 others wounded when a roadside bomb exploded near another cafe in the Baya area in southwestern Baghdad, the police source said.

He added that a policeman was killed and two others wounded when a roadside bomb targeted police patrol in Mashahda, 30 km north of Baghdad.

In a separate attack, unidentified gunmen targeted a joint army and police checkpoint near Falluja, 50 km west of Baghdad, killing a soldier and a policeman on the spot and injuring three soldiers.

In Iraq's northern city of Mosul, unidentified gunmen shot dead Mohammed Karim al-Badrani, a correspondent with al-Sharqiyah satellite channel, and his colleague Mohammed Ghanim, while they were interviewing residents in Sarj-Khana district in central Mosul, some 400 km north of Baghdad, a police source said.

The Iraqi Journalists Syndicate, which condemned in a statement the assassination of the two journalists, said in its annual report earlier that more than 375 media workers have been killed in Iraq since the US-led invasion in 2003.

A roadside bomb went off at a checkpoint manned by government-backed Sahawa paramilitary group fighters in Yousifiyah town, 25 km south of Baghdad, killing three group fighters and wounding four others, a police source said.

Elsewhere, gunmen in a car fired at a Sahwa leader and his bodyguards in Hawijah city's Zab area, some 220 km north of Baghdad, killing three of his bodyguards and wounding the leader, police said.

The Sahwa militia, also known as the 'awakening council' or the 'sons of Iraq', consists of armed groups, including some powerful anti-US Sunni insurgent groups, who turned against the Al Qaeda network after Sahwa's leaders became dismayed by the militant group's brutality and religious zealotry in the country.

A group of gunmen bombed three houses of policemen early Saturday in Amriyat al-Fallujah area, just south of the Fallujah city, killing two people and wounding four others, including a policeman.

In a separate incident, gunmen in a car shot dead a civilian near his house in the southern part of Fallujah, the source said.

In Baghdad, a government employee was killed when a sticky bomb detonated in his car in Doura district in the southern part of the capital, an interior ministry source said.

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

The UN Assistance Mission for Iraq has said that almost 6,000 civilians were killed and over 14,000 others injured in Iraq from January to September this year.

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Attacks in Iraq over the weekend killed nearly 70 people.

In the bloodiest incident, a suicide bomber blew himself up among a crowd of Shi'te pilgrims in Baghdad on October 5. Police said at least 48 people were killed.

The pilgrims were targeted as they passed through the mainly Sunni neighborhood of Azamiyah.

In the mainly Shi'ite town of Balad, north of Baghdad, a suicide bomber blew himself up in a cafe, killing at least 13 people and wounding 22.

Earlier on the same day, gunmen shot dead a reporter and cameraman for the al-Sharqiya TV channel while they were on assignment in the northern city of Mosul. There was no immediate claim of responsibility for any of the attacks.

Al-Qaeda's Iraq branch often uses suicide bombers and targets Shi'ite civilians in a bid to undermine confidence in the Shi'ite-led government.

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Two suicide bombers targeted Shi’ite Muslims in Iraq on Saturday, killing at least 32 people on the eve of the anniversary of one of their imams’ deaths, police and medics said on Saturday.

In the northern city of Mosul, unidentified gunmen shot two Iraqi television journalists dead as they were filming, security sources said.

No group immediately claimed responsibility for either of the bombings, but such attacks are the hallmark of Sunni Islamist al Qaeda, which views Shi’ites as non-believers and has been regaining momentum this year.

In Baghdad, a suicide bomber detonated his explosives at a checkpoint, killing at least 20 Shi’ite pilgrims on their way to visit a shrine in the Kadhimiya district, police and medical sources said.

Earlier on Saturday, another suicide bomber blew himself up inside a cafe in a mainly Shi’ite town of Balad, 80 km (50 miles) north of Baghdad, killing 12 people. The cafe was targeted in an almost identical bombing 40 days ago.

“I received the corpse of my cousin. It was completely charred and difficult to identify,” said Abdullah al-Baldawi, whose relative was killed in the cafe bombing.

Relations between Islam’s two main denominations have come under acute strain from the conflict in Syria, which has drawn fighters from Iraq and the wider Middle East into a sectarian proxy war.

More than 6,000 people have been killed in violence across the country this year, according to monitoring group Iraq Body Count, reversing a decline in sectarian bloodshed that had climaxed in 2006-07.

It was not clear who was behind the killing of the journalists, who worked for Iraqi television channel al-Sharqiya News, which is often critical of the Shi’ite-led government and is popular among the country’s Sunni minority.

“They shot them in the chest and head, killing them instantly,” said a security source who declined to be named.

Iraq is considered one of the most dangerous countries for journalists. According to the Baghdad-based Journalism Freedoms Observatory, 261 journalists have been killed and 46 kidnapped since 2003, the year of the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq.

Mosul, capital of the predominantly Sunni province of Nineveh, is a stronghold for Islamist and other insurgents.

A journalist from Mosul said insurgents in the city changed their tactics and targets from time to time, and may now have set their sights on journalists, after previous spates of attacks against traffic police and mayors.

“I will leave the city of Mosul and live in the outskirts until things calm down,” said the journalist on condition of anonymity.
The Journalists’ Syndicate denounced the killings as a “criminal act”, demanding the authorities track down the perpetrators and do more to protect the media.

Nineveh governor Atheel al-Nujaifi condemned the killings: “It aims to muzzle the voice of people, the voice of righteousness”.
Iraq’s Sunni community has grown increasingly resentful of a government it accuses of marginalising their sect since coming to power after the U.S.-led invasion that vanquished Saddam Hussein in 2003.

Sunnis launched street protests in December after Shi’ite Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki sought to arrest a senior Sunni politician. A bloody raid by security forces on a protest camp in April touched off a violent backlash by Sunni militants.

The United Nations Mission in Iraq said nearly 900 civilians were killed across Iraq in September, raising the death toll so far this year to well above the total for 2013.

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Suicide bombers targeting Shiite Muslims have reportedly killed 60 people in a string of attacks in Iraq Two journalists have also been shot dead in the northern city of Mosul.

Two suicide bombers targeting Shiite Muslims have reportedly killed 60 people in separate attacks in Iraq, on the eve of the anniversary of one of their imams' deaths.

Police and medical sources say 48 Shiite pilgrims were killed by a suicide bomber at a checkpoint in Baghdad on Saturday, as they made their way to visit a shrine.

Another suicide bomber blew himself up inside a cafe in a mainly Shiite town of Balad, 80 kilometres north of Baghdad, killing 12 people.
The cafe was targeted in an almost identical bombing 40 days ago.

"I received the corpse of my cousin. It was completely charred and difficult to identify," said Abdullah al-Baldawi, whose relative was killed in the cafe bombing.

No group has yet claimed responsibility for the deaths but such attacks are the hallmark of Sunni Islamist Al Qaeda.

Relations between Islam's two main denominations have come under acute strain from the conflict in Syria, which has drawn fighters from Iraq and the wider Middle East into a sectarian proxy war.

More than 6,000 people have been killed in violence across the country this year, according to monitoring group Iraq Body Count, reversing a decline in sectarian bloodshed that had climaxed in 2006 and 2007.

Iraqi journalists shot dead

Security forces say unidentified gunmen shot dead two Iraqi television journalists while they were filming in the northern city of Mosul.

It is not clear who was behind the killing of the journalists who worked for Iraqi television channel al-Sharqiya News, which is often critical of the Shiite government and is popular among the country's Sunni minority.

"They shot them in the chest and head, killing them instantly," said a security source.

Iraq is considered one of the most dangerous countries for journalists.

According to the Baghdad-based Journalism Freedoms Observatory, 261 journalists have been killed and 46 kidnapped since 2003, the year of the US-led invasion of Iraq.

Mosul, capital of the predominantly Sunni province of  Nineveh, is a stronghold for Islamist and other insurgents.

A journalist from Mosul said insurgents in the city changed their tactics and targets from time to time, and may now have set their sights on journalists after previous attacks on traffic police and mayors.

"I will leave the city of Mosul and live in the outskirts until things calm down," said the journalist on condition of anonymity.
The Journalists' Syndicate denounced the killings as a criminal act, demanding the authorities track down the perpetrators and do more to protect the media.

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Violence including an attack on Shiite pilgrims in Baghdad killed at least 73 people across Iraq on Saturday, among them two journalists gunned down in the north, officials said.

Violence is at a level unseen since 2008, and there are persistent fears that Iraq will relapse into the kind of intense Sunni-Shiite bloodshed that peaked in 2006-2007 and killed tens of thousands of people.

Accounts differed as to whether the attack on the pilgrims in the Adhamiyah area of north Baghdad, which killed at least 49 people and wounded at least 75, was a bomb followed by a suicide bombing, or a suicide attack alone.

It came as pilgrims walked to a shrine to commemorate the death of Imam Mohammed al-Jawad, the ninth Shiite imam.
Iraq is home to some of the holiest sites in Shiite Islam, and millions of pilgrims visit them each year.

But crowds of pilgrims are frequently targeted by Sunni militants including those linked to Al-Qaeda, who consider Shiites to be apostates.

Earlier on Saturday, gunmen killed two Iraqi journalists in the northern city of Mosul.

The Sharqiya television channel said two of its journalists -- correspondent Mohammed Karim al-Badrani and cameraman Mohammed Ghanem -- were "assassinated" in Mosul.

Police and a doctor confirmed the two journalists had been shot dead.

Their reports on security forces and officials in Mosul had brought death threats from militant groups opposed to the government, a Sharqiya journalist told AFP on condition of anonymity.

Iraq has come in for repeated criticism over shortcomings in media freedoms.

"Many Iraqi journalists are routinely exposed to threats, murder attempts, attacks, difficulties obtaining permission, denial of access, confiscation of equipment and so on," media rights watchdog Reporters Without Borders (RSF) said this year.

Journalists, even with government authorisation, are routinely barred from approaching the sites of attacks and prevented from otherwise freely reporting in Baghdad.

Photographic and video equipment is also often viewed with suspicion by security forces.

In the town of Balad, north of the capital, a suicide bomber struck a cafe, killing 12 people and wounding 35, police and a doctor said.

The same cafe was attacked by a suicide bomber in August, killing 16 people.

Militants have launched numerous attacks on cafes in recent months and have also targeted other places where crowds gather, including mosques, football fields, funerals and markets.

In Muqdadiyah, a town northeast of Baghdad that is the site of frequent bombings and shootings, a roadside bomb exploded near a car, killing one person and wounding three.

Another bombing in the Bayaa area of Baghdad itself killed two people and wounded at least 10.

And the Iraqi defence ministry said that security forces killed five militants in clashes south of the town of Baiji, and two more in the northern province of Nineveh.

Security forces have carried out wide-ranging operations against militants for more than two months, but have yet to succeed in curbing the wave of attacks plaguing Iraq.

The latest violence takes this month's death toll to more than 130, and more than 4,800 since the beginning of the year, according to AFP figures based on security and medical sources.

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Shafaq News / Security and medical sources in Baghdad revealed on Sunday, that more than 160 people have been casualties by a suicide bombing that targeted pilgrims heading to Kadhimiya, northern the capital to commemorate the death of Imam Muhammad al-Jawad , the ninth Imam of Shiite Muslims .

The suicide bomber wearing an explosive belt blew himself up, last night on Al-Aeyma Bridge, which connects Kadhimiya and Adhamiya cities in Baghdad as he targeted the pilgrims.

The previous outcome was the death of three pilgrims and injury of 12 others to rise after that to the death of 20 pilgrims and the injury of 50 others.

“56 people were killed and 106 others were injured, as the attack was carried out by a suicide bomber wearing an explosive belt yesterday night in Adhamiya district northern Baghdad on pilgrims who were on their way to the Shiite shrine of Musa al-Kadhim and Muhammad al-Jawad,” Sources said in an interview for "Shafaq News”.

Areas of mixed presence of Sunnis and Shiites in central and southern Iraq , are experiencing a return of sectarian violence, displacement and killing on identity which threatens the return of sectarian fighting in 2006 and 2007.

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