Iman Chairman condemns recent spate of terrorist attacks in Iraq
Lunes, 17 Febrero 2014
Smoke billows after an explosion in the business district of Al-Sanak
Bomb attacks kill at least 24 in Iraq capital
REUTERS
At least 24 people were killed in bomb explosions in the Iraqi capital late on Monday, including blasts near two Shi'ite Muslim mosques and at a busy bus station, police and medics said.
No group immediately claimed responsibility for any of the attacks, but Shi'ites are often targeted by Sunni Islamist insurgents who have been regaining ground in Iraq over the past year and overran several towns in recent weeks.
In Monday's deadliest attack, a minibus packed with explosives blew up at a bus station in the mainly Shi'ite district of Ur in northern Baghdad, killing at least 11 people, police and medical sources said.
"The parked minibus inside the garage raised suspicions and when drivers started shouting for its driver, it exploded," said bus driver Farah Abbas. "Many people were thrown back by the blast and vehicles caught fire".
A further nine people were killed in car bomb attacks targeting mosques in Baghdad's predominantly Shi'ite districts of Amil and Karrada, police and medical sources said.
A car bomb near a busy street in Baghdad's western district of Ghazaliya killed four others. In separate incidents in the city of Tikrit, gunmen shot dead a police colonel and a barber inside his shop.
The army on Monday was fighting to wrest control of Sulaiman Pek from Sunni militants who took over parts of the northern town last Thurdsay and raised the black flag of the Islamic state in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) over it.
ISIL is active in the civil war in neighbouring Syria and is also present in the city of Falluja, which has been under siege by the army since January 1, when militants took over.
Scores killed, more than 120 wounded in day of carnage across Iraq
CNN
Scores of people were killed and at least 123 others were wounded Wednesday in shootings and explosions across Iraq, senior Interior Ministry officials said.
Five bombings in the Iraqi capital were responsible for dozens of the casualties, Baghdad police officials said.
Three of the Baghdad bombings happened in the morning, killing at least 25 people near checkpoints for entry into the city's International Zone, a heavily fortified area that houses Iraqi government offices and the U.S. and British embassies.
In the deadliest blast, a suicide bomber targeted a security checkpoint near the International Zone, Iraqi Interior Ministry spokesman Brig. Gen. Saad Maan Ibrahim said. Police officials said the bomber struck a restaurant that is frequented by Iraqis going into the International Zone, which is also called the Green Zone.
The second blast occurred near the entrance to Iraq's Foreign Ministry building. Police and residents said a car bomb exploded in a parking lot opposite the building, and the Interior Ministry said it was a suicide bombing.
The third explosion took place in the Al-Sanak area of Baghdad, one of the capital's main commercial areas.
Police officials did not give a breakdown of how many people were killed and injured in each blast.
Conflicting accounts have emerged, with initial reports from security sources indicating all three of the morning blasts were car bombings.
In the evening, two car bombs exploded near a busy commercial area in southeastern Baghdad, killing at least 10 people and injuring 24 others, police said.
And a roadside bomb and a car bomb exploded at a coffee shop and a restaurant in al-Dora in southern Baghdad. It killed four people and wounded 16 others, police officials told CNN.
In southwestern Mosul, in northern Iraq, a car bomb exploded outside the Turkish consulate, wounding five Iraqi security forces at a checkpoint outside the consulate, two senior Interior Ministry officials said.
In western Mosul, gunmen targeted Um al-Rabiein police station, the officials said. The attack started when a suicide bomber drove a bomb-rigged vehicle to the main checkpoint of the police station and exploded. That was followed by rocket-propelled grenade and small-arms fire, they said. At least five people were killed, four of them police officers, and 23 were wounded, 14 of them police.
Also in western Mosul, a car bomb exploded at an Iraqi army convoy, killing three soldiers and wounding eight people, four of them soldiers, the officials said.
The United Nations' special representative in Iraq, Nickolay Mladenov, condemned the violence.
"Those who orchestrate such attacks should be condemned by all political, religious and civic leaders in this country," he said in a prepared statement. "Iraq political leaders should show national unity in dealing with such threats and unite against terrorism."
Iraq's Foreign Ministry has been targeted in the past.
The worst attack was in August 2009, when it was hit by a suicide truck bomb and dozens of staff were killed and injured.
Another government building, the Transport Ministry, was attacked by gunmen last week. The militants seized part of the building and took civil servants hostage before security forces drove them out.
Also Wednesday, a car bombing in the northern city of Mosul killed two bodyguards of a member of Iraq's Parliament, police said.
The blast happened outside the eastern Mosul house of Wisal Salim, a Sunni Muslim lawmaker.
The United Nations said 2013 was the deadliest year in Iraq since 2008, with almost 8,000 people killed, most of them civilians.
The figures remained grim in January. According to the U.N. mission in Iraq, 618 civilians and 115 members of the country's security forces were killed.
The U.N. tally does not include those killed in a fresh wave of violence in Iraq's Anbar province, west of Baghdad, where al Qaeda-backed militants and Iraqi security forces have been fighting since the end of last year.
The ongoing violence in Anbar, Salaheddin and Nineveh Sunni provinces has raised concerns among some observers that parliamentary elections scheduled for April 30 will be delayed.
Condemning the attacks, Chairman of the Iman Foundation, Ribal Al-Assad said:
"I am appalled to learn of this recent spate of attacks in Iraq and saddened by the loss of so many innocent lives - these truly are brutal acts perpetrated by those who seek to tear Iraq apart through sectarian violence.
I echo the sentiments of the UN Special Representative to Iraq, Nickolay Mladenov, when I say how imperative it is that all civil and religious leaders, from all sides, come together to condemn these heinous crimes - let their resolve be strengthened in the face of such adversity.
My thoughts and prayers are with the victims and their families at this time."
