Wave Of Attacks Kills 56 In Iraq

A Series of more than 20 attacks across Iraq have killed 56 people and wounded more than 250 others, security and medical officials say, with targets including security forces and markets.


The latest violence brings the number of people killed in attacks so far this month to 86, according to an AFP tally based on security and medical sources.

In the deadliest attack on Sunday, two car bombs exploded in a market near the shrine of Imam Ali al-Sharqi in southern Iraq, a security official said.

Dr Ali al-Alaa, a Maysan province health department official, said the blasts killed 14 people and wounded 60.

Before midnight on Saturday, gunmen opened fire on an army checkpoint near Balad north of Baghdad and a roadside bomb exploded when additional soldiers arrived at the scene.

Eleven soldiers, including two officers, were killed and eight others wounded, an army colonel and a medical source at Balad hospital said.

A police captain was also shot dead on Saturday night in the town of Garma, security and medical officials said.

Early Sunday morning, a car bomb exploded in a car park at the rear gate of state-owned North Oil Company, near the northern city of Kirkuk, killing seven people and wounding 17 others.

In Kirkuk itself, two bombings killed three people and wounded 70 others.

Three car bombs exploded in Taji, north of the capital, killing one person and wounding at least seven others, an interior ministry official and a medical source said.

And five roadside bombs exploded in and around Baquba, killing a soldier and wounding 17 others, a police colonel and a doctor said.

In the former insurgent stronghold of Fallujah, a sniper shot dead a soldier, army Captain Saadun al-Mohammedi and Dr Hamed Iyad from Fallujah hospital said.

In Nasiriyah, 305 kilometres south of Baghdad, a bomb exploded on Sunday near a French honorary consulate, causing material damage and wounding an unspecified number of people, a French diplomat said.

The city's website put the toll from the bombing at one dead and one wounded.

Meanwhile, a car bomb exploded in front of a hotel in Nasiriyah, killing two people and wounding two others, according to the head of Nasiriyah hospital, Ahmed Abdul Saheb, and a security source.

Attacks in Tuz Khurmatu, north of Baghdad killed four people, including a police captain and wounded 31, among them a police second lieutenant, its mayor Shalal Abdul and police Lieutenant Colonel Khaled al-Bayati said.

In the southern port city of Basra, a car bomb in a market killed three people and wounded at least 20 others, police and a medical official said.

In Tal Afar, northwest of Baghdad, a car bomb exploded killing two people and wounding seven, police First Lieutenant Abed Ghayib and Dr Waad Mohammed from Tal Afar hospital said.

And south of Samarra, a city north of Baghdad, another car bomb killed two police, including Colonel Thair Idris, and wounded two others, a police lieutenant colonel and a medical source said.

Posted in: Middle East