A 9-year-old schoolboy was among at least 12 people that insurgents killed across Iraq on Wednesday, rattling nerves ahead of a holiday weekend.
Violence has declined since the height of Iraq's insurgency, but the attacks once again showed that Sunni extremists seeking to undermine the Shiite-led government remain a lethal challenge to Iraq's security.
The child, Ahmed al-Obeidi, was killed when a parked motorcycle packed with explosives went off near a local politician's passing convoy in the northern oil-rich city of Kirkuk, according to police and a provincial council official. The boy and his brother were on their way to buy clothes for the holiday of Eid al-Adha, which begins later this week.
Four other people were wounded in the attack. Politician Ali al-Hashemi, an ethnic Turkomen and the apparent target of the blast, escaped unharmed.
Kirkuk, about 290 kilometers (180 miles) north of Baghdad, is home to mix of Arabs, Kurds and Turkomen, all competing to control the city.
Authorities typically tighten security ahead of holidays, seeking to thwart attackers who take advantage of times when employees are off work and families gather in public places such as parks and restaurants. A wave of attacks shortly before another Muslim holiday in August, Eid al-Fitr, killed more than 90 people in one of the deadliest days in Iraq this year.
Members of the security forces — favorite targets for insurgents — were also among those killed Wednesday, according to police.
In Baghdad's western Mansour neighborhood, militants in a speeding car killed two soldiers at an Iraqi army checkpoint. A roadside bomb exploded shortly afterward as police headed to the scene, killing one policeman and wounding six people.
Shortly before dawn, a sniper shot and killed a police officer in the capital's eastern Mashtal neighborhood.
In the afternoon, gunmen ambushed a minibus carrying employees of a state-run car parts manufacturer in Mishada, north of Baghdad, killing four people and wounding two. Two other people were killed when gunmen sprayed their car with bullets near Baqouba, in central Iraq.
In Tuz Khormato, some 210 kilometers (130 miles) northeast of Baghdad, a roadside bomb struck a police patrol, killing a policeman and wounding three others.
Health officials confirmed the casualty figures. All officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to release the information to reporters.
Also Wednesday, Supreme Judicial Council spokesman Abdul-Sattar Bayrkdar said authorities have begun summoning employees of the central bank to give testimony as part of a probe into alleged financial wrongdoing. None has faced arrest.
The questioning follows the issuing of arrest warrants for 16 bank officials, including longtime governor Sinan al-Shabibi, a politically independent economist who has led the institution since 2003. The investigation, launched by a special parliamentary committee, has raised concerns of political interference in the bank.
On remarks posted on his official website Wednesday, Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki denied that his administration was behind the investigation that led to the arrest warrants, seeking to quell allegations that the case is politically motivated.
(Matthew Cypher)
It's sad that terrorist are targeting younger children or are trying to hurt other people with civilians around. It sounds like they're having a lot of problems with their governor and the attacks around their home land. So hopefully they can get help from another country or work it out by themselves to stop the governor from stealing money and the terrorist attacks.
ReplyDelete-Kelsey G.
It's sad that terrorist are targeting younger children or are trying to hurt other people with civilians around. It sounds like they're having a lot of problems with their governor and the attacks around their home land. So hopefully they can get help from another country or work it out by themselves to stop the governor from stealing money and the terrorist attacks.
ReplyDelete-Kelsey G.
When you read an article like this, it makes you feel like the Middle East is hopeless and that we wasted 10 years in a country that will never get better. It's awful to think that terrorists will take their own life and others' for nothing. The Sunni-Shiite split is not worth taking someone's life over. However, they have not yet been able to see that. To me the only real solution here is education. If we could teach them early and wrestle them away from terrorist mentality, then there is hope for future generations. If not, we'll be reading articles like this one for the rest of our lives. -Mae Markowski
ReplyDeleteArticles like this are terrible to read. Kids dying because of decades old battles that they had no part in is awful. There needs to be peace in this region; hopefully it will happen soon, but there doesn't appear to be an end in sight.
ReplyDelete-Alex Canan
Violence between sunni's and shia's have been going on since the religion of Islam was very first split into two different sects. While this article is sad and the loss of any young life regrettable this has gone on and will continue to go on as long as there is religious difference throughout the region.
ReplyDelete