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Car bombs kill scores in Baghdad, in sign of crisis in Iraq

The bloody campaign has virtually erased the security gains made in the past five years. More than 5,300 Iraqis have been killed this year. Sunday’s attacks occurred just three days before Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki is scheduled to arrive in Washington, where he will take part in meetings at the White House and on Capitol Hill. At the top of his agenda is a request for more U.S. help in the fight against the al-Qaeda affiliate, whose scope has grown to encompass neighboring Syria as well. “We need to increase the depth and width of our cooperation, to be more agile and reflect the seriousness of the situation in Iraq,” Iraq’s ambassador to Washington, Lukman Faily, said in a telephone interview. “In our discussions, we will highlight the urgent need for the approval and quick delivery of military sales.” At least 40 people died Sunday in attacks on […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Wave of Car Bombs in Iraq Kills Dozens

BAGHDAD — Ten car bombs targeting Shiite neighborhoods hit the Iraqi capital Sunday morning. All 10 bombs went off within 40 minutes, starting from 9:30 a.m. Forty-one civilians were killed and more than 100 others were wounded, according to security and medical officials. Ambulances rushed to hospitals and security forces tightened measures around checkpoints to search each passing car, creating a traffic jam. Most of the bombings targeted public markets and bus stations. In Huriya, a neighborhood in the northwestern part of Baghdad, five people were killed and 12 were wounded when a bomb exploded in a parked car near a public market. In Abu Dshir in southern Baghdad, another bomb in a parked car went off near a public market, killing six civilians and wounding 13 others. Other car bombs targeted the districts of Saba al-Bor, Mashtal, Baladiyat, Ur, Bayaa and Nahrawan, where two bombs exploded. “I don’t […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Egyptian police use teargas on protests in Alexandria and Suez

CAIRO (Reuters) – Police used teargas on Friday to disperse demonstrations by supporters of ousted Islamist president Mohamed Mursi in Egypt’s second city, Alexandria, and in Suez. Mursi’s supporters have staged frequent protests in towns and cities across Egypt, many of them following Friday prayers, since the army deposed him on July 3 in response to mass protests against his rule. In Suez, police fired tear gas to disperse around 4,000 pro-Mursi demonstrators, a local witness said. And in Alexandria, around 1,000 demonstrators backing Mursi and his Muslim Brotherhood blocked the Corniche, the main road along the Mediterranean seafront, and chanted slogans against the army and police, a witness said. Residents and drivers threw stones at the demonstrators to try to force them to let traffic through, which triggered clashes. Police responded by firing teargas to disperse the crowds. Two people were arrested, the witness said. Residents and pro-Mursi […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Officials: Bombings in Central Iraq Kill 13 People

Wengenn in Wonderland Associated Press Bombings in central Iraq that targeted a market, a cafe and the homes of police officers killed 13 people Friday, officials said, the latest attacks in a wave of violence roiling the country. Police said the deadliest attack took place in Friday morning when a bomb went off inside a crowded outdoor market in the town of Youssifiyah, just south of Baghdad. The attack killed five shoppers and wounded 15 people, officials said. Earlier in the day, bombs exploded near several houses belonging to police officers in the central city of Baqouba, killing four people, including a woman, authorities said. The explosives appeared to have been planted just outside the homes. Ten people were wounded in that attack, officials said. Baqouba is a former al-Qaida stronghold some 60 kilometers (35 miles) northeast of Baghdad. In Baghdad’s eastern Basmaya district, officials said a bombing at […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Violence Reverses Gains in Iraq

BAGHDAD—A flurry of recent attacks by al Qaeda-linked militants in Iraq—strengthened by their alliance with jihadist fighters in Syria—is threatening to undo years of U.S. efforts to crush the group, widening sectarian conflict in the Middle East. The chaos across the border in Syria and Iraqi Sunnis’ feeling of discrimination under the Shiite-led government has reignited the kind of intense sectarian strife that brought Iraq to the verge of civil war in 2006-2007. A security vacuum left by the withdrawal of American combat troops in December 2011 is also helping the fighters regain a foothold. The civilian death toll so far this year is nearly double last year’s, up to over 5,700 from at least 3,200. In July 2013 alone, 1,057 people were killed—the deadliest month for Iraqis in five years. Iraqi security officials say al Qaeda-linked fighters from the militant group Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham, or […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Hardships Mounting for Refugees Inside Syria

DAMASCUS, Syria — Some five million Syrians are now refugees in their own country, many living hand-to-mouth in vacant buildings, schools, mosques, parks and the cramped homes of relatives. Others are trapped in neighborhoods isolated by military blockades, beyond the reach of aid groups. Already desperately short of food and medicine as winter closes in, they could begin to succumb in greater numbers to hunger and exposure, aid workers say. The long civil war has forced two million Syrians outside the country ‘s borders, but more than twice that number face mounting privations at home, and the toll keeps rising. The deepening humanitarian crisis threatens to set the country’s development back decades and dwarfs any aid effort that could conceivably be carried out while the conflict continues, aid workers and analysts say. The cost of replacing damaged homes and infrastructure alone is estimated at more than $30 billion, and […]

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Spate of attacks on Shi’ite Muslims kills 59 people in Iraq

MOSUL, Iraq (Reuters) – Attacks on Shi’ite Muslims killed at least 59 people across Iraq on Thursday, including a suicide truck bomb targeting members of the country’s Shabak minority, police and medics said. There was no immediate claim of responsibility for any of the attacks, but Shi’ites are viewed as apostates by hardline Sunni Islamists who have been regrouping and gathering pace in an insurgency this year. Militants linked to al Qaeda have in the past attacked Shabaks, who are mainly Shi’ite. Sectarian tensions in Iraq and the wider Middle East have been brought to a boil by Syria’s civil war, which has drawn Sunnis and Shi’ites from the region and beyond into battle. Ten bombs exploded in primarily Shi’ite districts of the Iraqi capital late on Thursday, killing 44 people in all, police and medics said. One blast occurred near an amusement park north of Baghdad’s Sadr City […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Spate of attacks on Shi'ite Muslims kills 59 people in Iraq

MOSUL, Iraq (Reuters) – Attacks on Shi’ite Muslims killed at least 59 people across Iraq on Thursday, including a suicide truck bomb targeting members of the country’s Shabak minority, police and medics said. There was no immediate claim of responsibility for any of the attacks, but Shi’ites are viewed as apostates by hardline Sunni Islamists who have been regrouping and gathering pace in an insurgency this year. Militants linked to al Qaeda have in the past attacked Shabaks, who are mainly Shi’ite. Sectarian tensions in Iraq and the wider Middle East have been brought to a boil by Syria’s civil war, which has drawn Sunnis and Shi’ites from the region and beyond into battle. Ten bombs exploded in primarily Shi’ite districts of the Iraqi capital late on Thursday, killing 44 people in all, police and medics said. One blast occurred near an amusement park north of Baghdad’s Sadr City […]

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Attacks including Baghdad car bombs kill 66 in Iraq

Attacks including Baghdad car bombs kill 66 in Iraq By W.G. Dunlop (AFP) – 13 hours ago   Baghdad — A series of car bombs hit Baghdad province on Thursday, killing at least 44 people, while 22 died in other attacks, including two suicide bombings in northern Iraq, officials said. The attacks come as Iraq witnesses its worst violence since 2008, when the country was just emerging from a brutal sectarian conflict. The violence, which has included sectarian attacks, has raised fears of a relapse into the intense bloodshed that peaked in 2006-2007 and killed tens of thousands of people. Eleven car bombs exploded in eight areas in and around the Iraqi capital on Thursday, killing at least 44 people and wounding more than 120, officials said. More attacks, including two suicide bombings, were carried out in northern Iraq. One suicide bomber detonated a vehicle rigged with explosives in […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple