Suicide bombers in Iraq kill at least 19
BAGHDAD (Reuters) – Car bombers struck in Baghdad and northern Iraq on Tuesday, killing at least 19 people and wounding more than 40, the latest attacks in a surge of suicide bombings that have killed hundreds since late April. Four of the attacks were in or near the northern town of Hawija, c
Armoured vehicles secure the predominantly Shiite area of Shula where the car bomb exploded (AFP)
BAGHDAD (Reuters) – Car bombers struck in Baghdad and northern Iraq on Tuesday, killing at least 19 people and wounding more than 40, the latest attacks in a surge of suicide bombings that have killed hundreds since late April.
Four of the attacks were in or near the northern town of Hawija, close to the strategic oil city of Kirkuk. One suicide bomber blew up his car near a U.S. base, another beside an Iraqi army checkpoint and a third close to a market, police said.
A fourth car bomb struck a checkpoint in the town of Abasi, near Hawija. In total, 19 people were killed and 38 wounded in the four attacks, Major-General Anwar Mohammed Amin, the Iraqi army commander in Kirkuk, told Reuters.
In Baghdad, a car bomb detonated alongside a police patrol, wounding nine people, including two policemen, police said.
Since April 28, when Iraq”s new Shi”ite led cabinet was announced, insurgents have sharply escalated attacks, killing more than 800 Iraqis and 88 U.S. troops. May was the deadliest month for U.S. forces since January.
The violence has worsened sectarian tensions in Iraq.
A series of assassinations of clerics, and mass killings of Iraqis whose bodies were then dumped, has led some Sunni groups to accuse a militia linked to one of Iraq”s main Shi”ite parties of involvement in the kidnap and killing of Sunni Arabs.
The militia, the Badr organization, has denied involvement and political leaders have called on Iraqis to avoid being drawn into sectarian strife.
In the latest killing of a cleric, Salam Abdul-Karim, a Sunni, was found dead in the mainly Shi”ite city of Basra on Monday, relatives said. They said he had been abducted the previous day by men in Iraqi police uniforms.
Police denied any involvement in the killing. The death followed that of a Shi”ite cleric in Basra last week.
In an effort to defuse sectarian tensions and undermine the Sunni-Arab dominated insurgency, the Shi”ite and Kurdish blocs that emerged strongest from Iraq”s Jan. 30 polls are trying to involve more Sunni Arabs in the writing of a new constitution, the next key step in Iraq”s path toward full democracy.
Sunni Arabs dominated Iraq during the rule of Saddam Hussein but few voted in the January elections due to calls from Sunni Arab parties for a boycott and fears of insurgent attacks.
There are only 17 Sunni Arab lawmakers in Iraq”s 275-member parliament, and only two in the committee of 55 Iraqis that is tasked with overseeing the writing of a constitution.
The Shi”ite chairman of the committee has said it will be expanded to include more Sunni Arabs, but the names of the new members have yet to be agreed.
Near the western city of Falluja, two U.S. Marines have been killed by roadside bombs since Sunday, the military said.
Since the U.S.-led invasion in 2003, at least 1,676 American military and Pentagon personnel have lost their lives in Iraq.
US soldiers and Iraqi police cordon off the area where the bomb exploded in Shula, Northern Iraq (AFP)
US soldiers and Iraqi police secure the scene of the car bomb in Shula, a predominantly Shiite area of northern Baghdad (AFP)