A suicide bomber killed 32 mourners and injured dozens at a funeral for the nephew of a Shiite politician, one of several attacks yesterday across Iraq that killed a total of 53 people -- making it the deadliest day since the Dec. 15 elections.
The increased violence came as Iraq's three major political parties were close to forming a coalition government that would include Shiites, Sunni Arabs and Kurds, according to a Shiite politician.
Iraq's election commission said it planned to release the results of its investigation into almost 2,000 complaints stemming from last month's parliamentary elections within the next two days.
More than 100 mourners were standing in a cemetery in Muqdadiyah, about 90km north of Baghdad, for the burial of a nephew of Ahmed al-Bakka when the bomber struck, the Diyala provincial police said. The cemetery was strewn with body parts and the tombstones were stained with blood.
At least 32 people were killed and 42 injured, said Dr Firas al-Nida of the Muqdadiyah hospital.
Al-Bakka had survived an assassination attempt on Tuesday that killed his nephew. Al-Bakka is the head of the local Dawa party, led by Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari and a main partner in the country's largest Shiite political coalition, the United Iraqi Alliance.
Shiites have been targeted by extremist Sunni groups.
A senior official in the Dawa party said such attacks are meant to exert pressure on the United Iraqi Alliance to accept a less optimal compromise in the formation of the government.
"We expect attacks to increase before the formation of the government," Ali al-Adib said.
A partner in the largest Sunni Arab party denounced the attack.
"The Islamic Party condemns such ugly acts that are aimed at dividing the country," Nassir al-Ani said. "The perpetrators want to cause divisions and hinder the political process in Iraq, but they will fail and we will establish a national unity government."
Insurgents attacked a convoy of 60 tanker trucks with rocket propelled grenades and machine guns, destroying three of the tankers and damaging 15 others, police Lieutenant Abdul Zahra Qassim said. Three Iraqi army vehicles, which had been guarding the convoy, were also destroyed in the attack about 40km north of Baghdad, police said.
A fire caused by a burst gas pipe yesterday spread to several homes and sent a fireball soaring into the sky outside Malaysia’s largest city, injuring more than 100 people. The towering inferno near a gas station in Putra Heights outside Kuala Lumpur was visible for kilometers and lasted for several hours. It happened during a public holiday as Muslims, who are the majority in Malaysia, celebrate the second day of Eid al-Fitr. National oil company Petronas said the fire started at one of its gas pipelines at 8:10am and the affected pipeline was later isolated. Disaster management officials said shutting the
US Vice President J.D. Vance on Friday accused Denmark of not having done enough to protect Greenland, when he visited the strategically placed and resource-rich Danish territory coveted by US President Donald Trump. Vance made his comment during a trip to the Pituffik Space Base in northwestern Greenland, a visit viewed by Copenhagen and Nuuk as a provocation. “Our message to Denmark is very simple: You have not done a good job by the people of Greenland,” Vance told a news conference. “You have under-invested in the people of Greenland, and you have under-invested in the security architecture of this
Japan unveiled a plan on Thursday to evacuate around 120,000 residents and tourists from its southern islets near Taiwan within six days in the event of an “emergency”. The plan was put together as “the security situation surrounding our nation grows severe” and with an “emergency” in mind, the government’s crisis management office said. Exactly what that emergency might be was left unspecified in the plan but it envisages the evacuation of around 120,000 people in five Japanese islets close to Taiwan. China claims Taiwan as part of its territory and has stepped up military pressure in recent years, including
UNREST: The authorities in Turkey arrested 13 Turkish journalists in five days, deported a BBC correspondent and on Thursday arrested a reporter from Sweden Waving flags and chanting slogans, many hundreds of thousands of anti-government demonstrators on Saturday rallied in Istanbul, Turkey, in defence of democracy after the arrest of Istanbul Mayor Ekrem Imamoglu which sparked Turkey’s worst street unrest in more than a decade. Under a cloudless blue sky, vast crowds gathered in Maltepe on the Asian side of Turkey’s biggest city on the eve of the Eid al-Fitr celebration which started yesterday, marking the end of Ramadan. Ozgur Ozel, chairman of the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP), which organized the rally, said there were 2.2 million people in the crowd, but
RSS