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Nigeria: How My Father Turned Me to a Pipeline Vandal At 14 – Suspect

A 15-year-old boy, who was arrested alongside four others by operatives of the Inspector-General of Police Special Task Force on Anti-Pipeline Vandalism, Thursday, disclosed that he was pestered by his father until he joined the illicit act of pipeline vandalism. The suspect, Sani Musa and others were arrested with 200 kegs filled with diesel allegedly siphoned from a pipeline belonging to the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC, along Shagamu/Ibadan expressway. Also recovered was a truck with number plate KMC 111 XW. Their arrest, according to the Assistant Commissioner of Police in charge of the task force, Friday Ibadin, followed a tip-off that some vandals were leaving the NNPC pipeline in Shagamu. Policemen, led by the Sector Commander, Onaghaise Osayande, a Deputy Superintendent of Police, intercepted them. Reinstating the task force’s resolve to curb the menace of pipeline vandals, Ibadin however noted that it would be achieved with the collaboration […]

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Iraqi PM to ask Obama for more aid to stop attacks

AP Photo WASHINGTON (AP) — Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki (NOO’-ree ahl-MAHL’-ih-kee) is expected to appeal to President Barack Obama for more U.S. assistance in beating back the bloody insurgency consuming his country. Obama and al-Maliki will meet at the White House Friday. The Iraqi prime minister’s new aid requests come nearly two years after his government refused to let American forces stay in Iraq with legal immunity after the nine-year war formally ended. Violence started rising in Iraq within months of the U.S. troop departure at the end of 2011. The State Department says at least 6,000 Iraqis have been killed in attacks so far this year. The White House says Obama will raise concerns about the violence in Iraq and ways to reduce it during his meeting with al-Maliki. © 2013 The Associated Press . All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or […]

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Israel launches attacks on military sites in Syria

Israel’s air force attacked two military sites inside Syria on Wednesday evening, US military sources confirmed, marking the latest of several such covert strikes on the country’s northeastern neighbour this year. The sites are near the port city of Latakia and the capital Damascus, according to a person briefed on the matter, who said the US military believed that it was Israel that attacked. Confirmation of the attack late on Thursday followed earlier reports of sightings of Israeli jets in Lebanon and at least one explosion in Syria. Israel’s military, which has struck targets in Syria several times this year, declined to confirm or deny that it carried out the strikes. “We never comment on foreign reports,” an Israel Defence Forces spokeswoman said. Nagham Ghadri, a member of the Syrian National Coalition, the Turkey-based opposition group, said that activists in Latakia had reported hearing a huge explosion coming from […]

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Islamist Rebels Take Fight to Suburbs of Syrian Capital

DAMASCUS, Syria—Islamist rebels, including some with links to al Qaeda, are fast gaining strength in suburbs encircling the Syrian capital, despite a chemical-weapons attack two months ago on one of their strongholds. Since early September these groups have claimed responsibility for several suicide-bomb attacks against regime targets in and around Damascus. They have dramatically increased mortar and rocket attacks on regime-held residential neighborhoods within the capital and have raided nearby towns and villages inhabited by minorities, including Christians. Last week, these rebels blew up a gas pipeline feeding a power plant on the outskirts of Damascus, causing a complete blackout in the capital and most of Syria for several hours before the damage was repaired, according to government officials and residents. While riven by leadership rivalries and competing agendas, the Islamist rebels share the goal of toppling President Bashar al-Assad and establishing Islamic rule. Their strengthening around Damascus further […]

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Largest camp for Syrian refugees becoming a city

AP Photo ZAATARI CAMP, Jordan (AP) — The manager of the region’s largest camp for Syrian refugees arranges toy figures, trucks and houses on a map in his office trailer to illustrate his ambitious vision. In a year, he wants to turn the chaotic shantytown of 100,000 into a temporary city with local councils, paved streets, parks, an electricity grid and sewage pipes. Zaatari, a desert camp near Jordan’s border with Syria, is far from that ideal. Life is tough here. The strong often take from the weak, women fear going to communal bathrooms after dark, sewage runs between pre-fab trailers and boys hustle for pennies carting goods in wheelbarrows instead of going to school. But with Syria’s civil war in its third year, the more than 2 million Syrians who fled their country need long-term solutions, said Kilian Kleinschmidt, who runs Zaatari for the U.N. refugee agency. “We […]

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Iraqi PM: US aid needed to battle al-Qaida

AP Photo WASHINGTON (AP) — A bloody resurgence of al-Qaida in Iraq is prompting Baghdad to ask the U.S. for more weapons, training and manpower, two years after pushing American troops out of the country. The request will be discussed during a White House meeting Friday between Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki and President Barack Obama in what Baghdad hopes will be a fresh start in a complicated relationship that has been marked both by victories and frustrations for each side. Al-Maliki will discuss Iraq’s plight in a public speech Thursday at the U.S. Institute for Peace in Washington. “We know we have major challenges of our own capabilities being up to the standard. They currently are not,” Lukman Faily, the Iraqi ambassador to the U.S., told The Associated Press in an interview Wednesday. “We need to gear up, to deal with that threat more seriously. We need support […]

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U.S. General Decries Spiraling Iraq Violence

TAMPA, Fla.—The top U.S. commander in the Middle East said Iraq has entered a downward spiral of violence that threatens to drive the country’s leader further into the hands of Iran and heighten sectarian tensions across the region. With Iraqi security forces responding inadequately, U.S. officials are concerned that al Qaeda will develop a haven stretching from western Iraq into Syria. “If left unchecked, we could find ourselves in a regional sectarian struggle that could last a decade,” Army Gen. Lloyd Austin, the head of the U.S. military’s Central Command, told The Wall Street Journal in an interview here. Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki met with Vice President Joe Biden and congressional leaders on Wednesday, at the start of a visit to Washington and is set to meet President Barack Obama on Friday. The Washington visit comes at a pivotal moment. Gen. Austin and other U.S. officials have blamed […]

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In Iraq, Sunni attacks spark Shiite calls to arms

AP Photo BAGHDAD (AP) — The wave of attacks by al-Qaida-led Sunni extremists that has killed thousands of Iraqis this year, most of them Shiites, is provoking ominous calls from Shiite leaders to take up arms in self-defense. They generally insist they’ll do it legally, under the banner of the security forces. But Iraq’s young democracy is still struggling, nearly two years after U.S. troops withdrew, and the specter of armed Shiite and Sunni camps revives memories of the sectarian fighting that took the country to the brink of civil war in the mid-2000s. Since April, bombings and shootings have killed more than 5,500 people. Averaging at least two a week, they target outdoor markets, cafes, bus stations, mosques and pilgrimages in Shiite areas. Iraq’s Shiite prime minister, Nouri al-Maliki, who will meet with President Barack Obama on Friday, says he wants American help in quelling the violence. Departing […]

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Suicide bombers kill 11 military, police in Iraq dinner attack-police

BAGHDAD (Reuters) – Two suicide bombers killed at least 11 military and police officers and wounded 19 late on Tuesday by blowing themselves up outside a Sunni militia leader’s house in northern Baghdad as he was hosting dinner. Police in the Sunni neighborhood said the leader of the Sunni "Sahwa" militia, Saeed Jassim, was not hurt, but the commander of the military battalion deployed in the region and his deputy were among those who were killed. In Mosul, a suicide bomber driving a vehicle packed with explosives detonated the car near a police checkpoint in the west of the city late on Tuesday, killing at least eight people, including three policemen, police and medical sources said. Mosul, capital of the predominantly Sunni province of Nineveh, is a stronghold for Islamist insurgents who have been reinvigorated by growing resentment of the government that came to power after the U.S.-led invasion […]

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Starved Syria civilians flee besieged Damascus suburb

People walk from the rebel-held suburb of Moadamiya to government-held territory, helped by aid workers 29 October 2013 Last updated at 17:59 Thousands of Syrian civilians have finally been allowed to leave the besieged Damascus suburb of Moadamiya. The BBC’s Lyse Doucet, who was at the scene, describes a tide of desperate people leaving the area, which has been closed off since March. Supplies in Moadamiya had been running desperately short, and residents had pleaded to be saved from starvation. The exodus of civilians has been made possible by an apparent relaxation of a blockade by government forces. The Syrian army had previously said that rebel-held areas of Damascus such as Moadamiya could surrender or starve. At least three of Damascus’s suburbs – Yarmouk, Eastern Ghouta and Moadamiya – have been besieged by government forces for several months. Analysis A tide of people fled Moadamiya today – some on […]

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Central Bank falls victim to Libya’s rampant crime, anarchy

TRIPOLI (Reuters) – Gunmen rob millions from Libya’s central bank. Boatloads of protesters storm an oil terminal like pirates. Tribesmen block a port – and contradict the prime minister when he tells the nation it will reopen soon. Libyans have become accustomed to chaos in a country flooded with weaponry where militias and tribes call the shots, two years after NATO bombing helped rebels topple Muammar Gaddafi. But the daylight robbery of $55 million from a Central Bank van suggested that Prime Minister Ali Zeidan’s cabinet is losing the struggle to provide security and build state institutions. Ten gunmen intercepted the van on Monday when it left the airport in Sirte, a former Gaddafi stronghold, snatching the cash flown in from Tripoli for the local central bank branch. "The security situation is very bad in Sirte. When I heard about the robbery, I thought I was reading a detective […]

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Central Bank falls victim to Libya's rampant crime, anarchy

TRIPOLI (Reuters) – Gunmen rob millions from Libya’s central bank. Boatloads of protesters storm an oil terminal like pirates. Tribesmen block a port – and contradict the prime minister when he tells the nation it will reopen soon. Libyans have become accustomed to chaos in a country flooded with weaponry where militias and tribes call the shots, two years after NATO bombing helped rebels topple Muammar Gaddafi. But the daylight robbery of $55 million from a Central Bank van suggested that Prime Minister Ali Zeidan’s cabinet is losing the struggle to provide security and build state institutions. Ten gunmen intercepted the van on Monday when it left the airport in Sirte, a former Gaddafi stronghold, snatching the cash flown in from Tripoli for the local central bank branch. "The security situation is very bad in Sirte. When I heard about the robbery, I thought I was reading a detective […]

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Mexican Cartel Retaliates Against Civilians

MEXICO CITY—Crime groups launched coordinated attacks on a regional electricity grid that left hundreds of thousands of people without electricity and several dead in a rare case of civilians being deliberately targeted in Mexico’s drug war. The attacks in Mexico’s southern Michoacán state on Sunday morning left some 420,000 residents, about 10% of the state’s population, without electricity, authorities said. The outages also happened in Morelia city, where an international film festival attended by the directors Quentin Tarantino and Alfonso Cuarón was under way. On Monday, as electricity mostly returned, the government didn’t specify how exactly the attacks shut down the system, only that armed men fired bullets and threw Molotov cocktails at electricity stations throughout the state, leaving 11 towns and cities without power. Officials confirmed that five people were killed in attacks, but didn’t say how or why. A resident and local media reports said a crime […]

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Inspectors Visit All but 2 of Syria’s Declared Chemical Sites

GENEVA — International inspectors have completed verification of Syria’s chemical weapons arsenal at 21 of the 23 sites identified by the government, but they have been unable to visit the other two because they are in contested areas in Syria’s civil war, the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons said in a statement on Monday. The organization said Sunday that inspectors would complete destruction of equipment for mixing chemicals and filling weapons by the start of November, an important milestone. But no details are yet available on what kind of facilities are in the two sites inspectors have been unable to visit or the chances for gaining access to them, raising the prospect that Syria will miss some deadlines. Despite this hurdle, a senior State Department official said Monday that the disarmament process was generally on track and that there “was reason to be optimistic.” Among the positive […]

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Report: Syria on target to destroy chemical arms | Al Jazeera America

The inspectors have “confirmed the functional destruction of the production and mixing and filling capabilities at all the sites” inspected so far, Ban said. The U.N. leader stressed that the deadline should be met “a mere” 34 days after the 15-nation Security Council ordered the destruction of all of Syria’s chemical weapons. “In all of these activities the government of the Syrian Arab Republic has extended consistent, constructive cooperation,” Ban said. There are 22 OPCW experts and about 50 UN staff supervising the destruction program so far, the U.N. report said. The report said security “remains difficult and unpredictable” for the inspectors because of the 31-month-old war which the U.N. says has left well over 100,000 dead. Ban added the inspectors would go to the last sites “as soon as conditions permit.” The report did not say if the unsafe sites were in government or opposition territory. And the […]

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Report: Syria on target to destroy chemical arms | Al Jazeera America

The inspectors have “confirmed the functional destruction of the production and mixing and filling capabilities at all the sites” inspected so far, Ban said. The U.N. leader stressed that the deadline should be met “a mere” 34 days after the 15-nation Security Council ordered the destruction of all of Syria’s chemical weapons. “In all of these activities the government of the Syrian Arab Republic has extended consistent, constructive cooperation,” Ban said. There are 22 OPCW experts and about 50 UN staff supervising the destruction program so far, the U.N. report said. The report said security “remains difficult and unpredictable” for the inspectors because of the 31-month-old war which the U.N. says has left well over 100,000 dead. Ban added the inspectors would go to the last sites “as soon as conditions permit.” The report did not say if the unsafe sites were in government or opposition territory. And the […]

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

epa03916249 A Balinese man walks among the blazing coconut husks during a sacred ritual called ‘Mesabatan Api’ or fire fight at a temple in Tuban, Bali, Indonesia, 19 October 2013. During the ritual Balinese Hindu men took the blazing coconut husks barehanded, swinging and throwing them each other. Balinese believe that fire can destroy evil, and the ritual is aimed to get rid of the negative forces. EPA/MADE NAGI The latest attacks occurred just three days before Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki is scheduled to arrive in Washington for meetings at the White House and on Capitol Hill. At the top of his agenda is a request for more American help in the fight against the al-Qaeda afiliate, whose scope has grown to encompass both Iraq and Syria. “We need to increase the depth and width of our cooperation, to be more agile and reflect the seriousness of the […]

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Syria Meets Deadline for Submitting Destruction Plan for Chemical Weapons

GENEVA — Syria submitted a formal declaration of its chemical weapons program and its plans for destroying its arsenal three days ahead of the deadline, the international chemical weapons watchdog said Sunday. The watchdog, the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons , which has been charged with monitoring and destroying Syria’s chemical weapons program, said that it had received the Syrian submission on Thursday and that the agency’s Executive Council would review the declaration’s “general plan of destruction” by Nov. 15. It was not immediately clear, however, whether the declaration’s listing of chemical weapons sites was exhaustive, an important test of President Bashar al-Assad’s willingness to cooperate with the program to eliminate Syria’s chemical weapons infrastructure and arsenal. Saying that such declarations are confidential, the chemical weapons agency declined to disclose or discuss the contents of the Syrian document. American officials said in September that Syria’s chemical weapons […]

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Wave of Car Bombs Kills Dozens in Baghdad

BAGHDAD — Ten car bombs struck Shiite neighborhoods in Baghdad, the Iraqi capital, on Sunday morning, all exploding within 40 minutes. 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, 5 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 6 civilians and wounding 13 others. Other car bombs struck the districts of Saba al-Bor, Mashtal, Baladiyat, Ur, Sha’ab, Bayaa and Nahrawan, where two bombs exploded. “I don’t remember how I stopped […]

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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 […]

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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 […]

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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 […]

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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 […]

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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 […]

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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 […]

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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 […]

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