Iraq, 34 dead in kamikaze attack on Hilla. Among the victims, five children

HILLA – suicide bombing in Hilla, 95 kilometers south of Baghdad, in Iraq: 34 people – including 5 children – died and more than 160 were injured. The attack took place at a checkpoint.

The explosion occurred at a time of great affluence at the entrance to the city. The kamikaze aboard a minibus loaded with explosives blew itself up in the middle of a row of cars, hitting and damaging dozens of vehicles waiting to pass. “Some of the victims – a police officer said – were burned alive inside their cars”.

The attack comes after the statements by Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki accusing Saudi Arabia and Qatar of destabilizing their country, providing political, financial and media support to the insurgents.

Public television Al-Iraqiya said that two of its employees were killed during the attack. In the rest of the country, five people were killed in separate attacks. And a police colonel and two policemen were killed in various attacks in northern Baghdad.

In Iraq there has been an increase in violence since last April, when the number of deaths reached its highest levels since the bloody 2006-2008 period. According to the United Nations, 8,868 people were killed in 2013, while more than 1,400 died between January and February this year.

09 March 2014