Fresh attacks in Iraq kill 24 Shias, five policemen
13 July 2013 11:12 PM GMT
New attacks on Iraqi Shias killed at least 24 people while assaults Friday against policemen killed five, officials said, as insurgents press their campaign to exacerbate the country’s renewed sectarian tensions.
In one of the attacks on Shias, a suicide bomber rammed his explosives-laden motorcycle into a funeral tent for a Shia family in the town of in Muqdadiyah, about 90 kilometers (60 miles) north of Baghdad, officials said.
The late Thursday evening explosion killed 13 people and wounded 24, the officials said. In the northern town of Dujail, about 80 kilometers (50 miles) from Baghdad, a parked car bomb went off outside a Shia mosque late on Thursday. As people gathered around the blast site, another bomb went off.
The twin bombing killed at least 11 people and wounded 25, said the town mayor, Nayif al-Khazrachi. Two medical officials confirmed thecasualty figures.
The two attacks raised the overall death toll Thursday from a series of attacks, which included assaults on police stations in the cities of Ramadi and Fallujah west of Baghdad, to 40.
Sunni cleric Salah al-Nuaimi urged calm among Iraqis during a joint Sunni-Shia Friday sermon in Baghdad aimed at easing sectarian tensions. ‘Enough is enough,’ al-Nuaimi told worshippers at a Baghdad mosque. ‘We all love Iraq, we are all Iraqis and we want to be united, we want to stop the bloodletting, develop and build Iraq.’
‘Stop fighting, we have had enough of bombings. We want to agree on one word, we want to worship inside mosques comfortably,’ he added. But attacks continued on Friday. A suicide car bomber struck a police patrol outside the northern city of Mosul, killing four policemen, a police officer and a medical official said.
Mosul is 360 kilometers (225 miles) northwest of the Iraqi capital.
And outside the northern city of Tikrit, 130 kilometers (80 miles) north of Baghdad, drive-by shooters armed with pistols fitted with silencers killed a senior police officer.
In one of the attacks on Shias, a suicide bomber rammed his explosives-laden motorcycle into a funeral tent for a Shia family in the town of in Muqdadiyah, about 90 kilometers (60 miles) north of Baghdad, officials said.
The late Thursday evening explosion killed 13 people and wounded 24, the officials said. In the northern town of Dujail, about 80 kilometers (50 miles) from Baghdad, a parked car bomb went off outside a Shia mosque late on Thursday. As people gathered around the blast site, another bomb went off.
The twin bombing killed at least 11 people and wounded 25, said the town mayor, Nayif al-Khazrachi. Two medical officials confirmed thecasualty figures.
The two attacks raised the overall death toll Thursday from a series of attacks, which included assaults on police stations in the cities of Ramadi and Fallujah west of Baghdad, to 40.
Sunni cleric Salah al-Nuaimi urged calm among Iraqis during a joint Sunni-Shia Friday sermon in Baghdad aimed at easing sectarian tensions. ‘Enough is enough,’ al-Nuaimi told worshippers at a Baghdad mosque. ‘We all love Iraq, we are all Iraqis and we want to be united, we want to stop the bloodletting, develop and build Iraq.’
‘Stop fighting, we have had enough of bombings. We want to agree on one word, we want to worship inside mosques comfortably,’ he added. But attacks continued on Friday. A suicide car bomber struck a police patrol outside the northern city of Mosul, killing four policemen, a police officer and a medical official said.
Mosul is 360 kilometers (225 miles) northwest of the Iraqi capital.
And outside the northern city of Tikrit, 130 kilometers (80 miles) north of Baghdad, drive-by shooters armed with pistols fitted with silencers killed a senior police officer.
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