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August 29th,
2009 - Iraq Attacks Kill 19, Injure Dozens |
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Iraq Attacks Kill 19, Injure
Dozens By Hassan al-Obeidi Agence France Presse August 29, 2009 Tikrit, Iraq - A spate of
attacks across Iraq on Saturday killed 19 people, including a local
politician and a child, and injured dozens, making it the country's deadliest
day since Ramadan began. In the worst incident, five
policemen and three civilians, including a 10-year-old child, died when a
suicide car bomber targeted a police base in Al-Sharqat, north of Tikrit,
officials said. At least 20 people, 13
police among them, were wounded in the morning attack, the local police chief
said. Hours later, four people
were killed and 23 others injured when a bomb exploded at a market in Sinjar,
a town near the Syrian border and west of the restive northern city of Mosul. A high-ranking official at
Sinjar hospital said the four dead were a man and his son, another man and
another child. "The casualties include
women and children," added Elias Kheder, a local authority official. Around 70 percent of the
population of Sinjar are members of the ancient Yazidi religious sect. On August 13, 21 people were
killed and 32 wounded when two suicide bombers blew themselves up in a packed
cafe in the town. Two years ago, more than 400
Yazidis were slaughtered when four suicide truck bombs targeted two northern
villages in the deadliest attack since the US-led invasion of 2003. Yazidis number several
hundred thousand and live mostly in northern Iraq. They speak a dialect of
Kurdish, and follow a pre-Islamic religion and their own cultural traditions. Their main focus of worship
is Malak Taus, the chief of the archangels. Followers of other religions know
this angel as Lucifer or Satan, leading to popular prejudice that the
secretive Yazidis are devil-worshippers. Another attack on Saturday
killed a local politician and a passer-by in Fallujah. A bomb placed under the car
of Khaled Ghanam al-Zawbari, head of the local branch of the al-Dustour
party, exploded after he left a mosque following prayers, police said. Meanwhile, an attack by
gunmen on a police checkpoint east of Baquba, in Diyala province, killed one
officer and one civilian. Four police were wounded. And in Baghdad, an off-duty
soldier was killed and three people wounded, including a fellow soldier, in
Adhamiyah, a Sunni neighbourhood in the north of the capital, an interior
ministry official said. The same source said two
civilians were killed and 13 more wounded when a booby-trapped motorbike blew
up in Baghdad Jadida district in the east of the city. Despite a reduction in
violence in the past year, attacks on security forces and civilians remain
common nationwide, including in Baghdad, the restive northern city of Mosul
and in the ethnically divided oil hub of Kirkuk. Two devastating truck
bombings at the ministries of finance and foreign affairs in Baghdad on
August 19 killed 95 people and wounded about 600. Iraq accused neighbouring
Syria of harbouring the masterminds of the finance ministry attack and
recalled its ambassador from Damascus. Syria retaliated within
hours by ordering back its envoy from Baghdad. Copyright © 2009 AFP. External link: http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5hLyh9ixOOQDH_ChlOyn8O4fCBjHg |