Attacks in Iraq, sixty victims

BAGDAD – A series of attacks has sown terror in Iraq today. Sixty people died in Baghdad and other places. There are also over 200 injured, official sources communicate. The attacks took place over a period of two and a half hours and were conducted against Shiite targets in the capital – where most of the victims were registered – and in numerous other cities and villages. In addition to Baghdad, the provinces of Babylon, Diyala, Salaheddin and Kirkuk are affected.

After the withdrawal of American troops, the country has once again fallen into the nightmare of sectarian violence, bringing to mind the extremely harsh clashes of 2006 and 2007 that caused thousands of victims. The new wave of attacks breaks a period of relative calm, following the attempt by Shiite Prime Minister Nouri al Maliki and Sunni leaders to reach a political agreement.

At least 32 are the victims registered in the capital, where ten explosions have hit Shiite districts during rush hour and hit police patrols, commuters and people who crowded the shopping centers. Another dozen explosions affected several cities, from Mosul to Hilla, mostly directed against the police, a frequent target of Sunni insurgents.

In the Shiite district of Kadhimiya, in the northern part of the capital, a car bomb exploded killing 6 people and wounding 15. A second car bomb blew up in the Karrada district, near a police checkpoint, causing nine victims. Two more explosions hit the neighborhood, causing at least one other victim. In three Shiite neighborhoods in the capital, nine policemen were killed.

The most serious attack, outside the capital, occurred in the city of Balad, where seven people died and dozens were injured. At a security forces checkpoint in Adhamiyah, along the Tigris, an armed commando massacre of six people.

Two handmade bombs then caused two deaths in Umm-Mualaf, in the southwestern part of Baghdad; two other people were killed by a car bomb in Mansur, in the western part of the capital. A bomb in Dura killed two people; two dead also in Abu Shir, near a restaurant.

In Baquba, Diyala province, two car bombs and a roadside bomb caused four deaths while an armed commando killed two people. Also, in Dujail the explosion of a car bomb killed one person. Finally, three deaths occurred in the province of Salaheddin due to the explosion of yet another car bomb in the oil city of Baiji.

(February 23, 2012)