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Wave of attacks kill 56 in Iraq
A series of more than 20 attacks across Iraq killed 56 people and wounded over 250 others on Sunday, security and medical officials said, with targets including security forces and markets.
The latest violence brings the number of people killed in attacks so far this month to 86, according to an AFP tally based on security and medical sources.
In the deadliest attack on Sunday, two car bombs exploded in a market near the shrine of Imam Ali al-Sharqi in southern Iraq, a security official said.
Dr Ali al-Alaa, a Maysan province health department official, said the blasts killed 14 people and wounded 60.
Before midnight on Saturday, a gunmen opened fire on an Army checkpoint near Balad north of Baghdad and a roadside bomb exploded when additional soldiers arrived at the scene.
Eleven soldiers, including two officers, were killed and eight others wounded, an Army colonel and a medical source at Balad hospital said.
A police captain was also shot dead last night in the town of Garma, security and medical officials said.
Early Sunday morning, a car bomb exploded in a car parked at the rear gate of state-owned North Oil Company, 15 kilometres from the northern city of Kirkuk, killing seven people and wounding 17 others, police and Othman Abdul Rahman said.
The victims were seeking to join a force that guards oil facilities, a police officer said.In Kirkuk itself, two bombings killed three people andwounded 70 others, police and Mohammed Abdullah said.
The blasts left body parts strewn in the streets, destroyed cars, and damaged Government buildings, an AFP correspondent said.
The streets were deserted after the attacks.
A car bomb seriously wounded six soldiers west of Kirkuk, according to army Captain Taha Khalaf, while another in Hawija, also west of the city, wounded two people, security and medical sources said.
Volatile, oil-rich Kirkuk province is part of a swathe of disputed territory in northern Iraq that the autonomous Kurdistan region wants to incorporate over opposition from Baghdad.
Three soldiers were killed in clashes with insurgents in Abu Ghraib area, west of Baghdad, an interior ministry official and a medical source from Abu Ghraib hospital said.
Three car bombs exploded in Taji, north of the capital, killing one person and wounding at least seven others, an interior ministry official said and a medical source said.
Iraq’s fugitive VP sentenced to death
Baghdad: Iraq's fugitive Vice President Tareq al-Hashemi, a top critic of Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki, was convicted of murder on Sunday and sentenced to death by hanging, in a decision likely to renew political tensions. Hashemi, tried in absentia, has dismissed all charges against him as politically motivated. A Baghdad court also tried in absentia his secretary and son-in-law Ahmed Qahtan and sentenced him to death. The trial for the murder of a lawyer and a brigadier general covered the first of around 150 charges levelled against Hashemi.
A series of more than 20 attacks across Iraq killed 56 people and wounded over 250 others on Sunday, security and medical officials said, with targets including security forces and markets.
The latest violence brings the number of people killed in attacks so far this month to 86, according to an AFP tally based on security and medical sources.
In the deadliest attack on Sunday, two car bombs exploded in a market near the shrine of Imam Ali al-Sharqi in southern Iraq, a security official said.
Dr Ali al-Alaa, a Maysan province health department official, said the blasts killed 14 people and wounded 60.
Before midnight on Saturday, a gunmen opened fire on an Army checkpoint near Balad north of Baghdad and a roadside bomb exploded when additional soldiers arrived at the scene.
Eleven soldiers, including two officers, were killed and eight others wounded, an Army colonel and a medical source at Balad hospital said.
A police captain was also shot dead last night in the town of Garma, security and medical officials said.
Early Sunday morning, a car bomb exploded in a car parked at the rear gate of state-owned North Oil Company, 15 kilometres from the northern city of Kirkuk, killing seven people and wounding 17 others, police and Othman Abdul Rahman said.
The victims were seeking to join a force that guards oil facilities, a police officer said.In Kirkuk itself, two bombings killed three people andwounded 70 others, police and Mohammed Abdullah said.
The blasts left body parts strewn in the streets, destroyed cars, and damaged Government buildings, an AFP correspondent said.
The streets were deserted after the attacks.
A car bomb seriously wounded six soldiers west of Kirkuk, according to army Captain Taha Khalaf, while another in Hawija, also west of the city, wounded two people, security and medical sources said.
Volatile, oil-rich Kirkuk province is part of a swathe of disputed territory in northern Iraq that the autonomous Kurdistan region wants to incorporate over opposition from Baghdad.
Three soldiers were killed in clashes with insurgents in Abu Ghraib area, west of Baghdad, an interior ministry official and a medical source from Abu Ghraib hospital said.
Three car bombs exploded in Taji, north of the capital, killing one person and wounding at least seven others, an interior ministry official said and a medical source said.
Iraq’s fugitive VP sentenced to death
Baghdad: Iraq's fugitive Vice President Tareq al-Hashemi, a top critic of Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki, was convicted of murder on Sunday and sentenced to death by hanging, in a decision likely to renew political tensions. Hashemi, tried in absentia, has dismissed all charges against him as politically motivated. A Baghdad court also tried in absentia his secretary and son-in-law Ahmed Qahtan and sentenced him to death. The trial for the murder of a lawyer and a brigadier general covered the first of around 150 charges levelled against Hashemi.
