Car Bombs Kill 18 in Southern Iraq

Street cleaners remove debris on the road after a car bomb exploded in Diwaniya province, 150 km (95 miles) south of Baghdad, April 29, 2013.

Car bombs have exploded in predominantly Shi'ite areas of central and southern Iraq, killing at least 18 people and wounding more than 50 others.
Two of the blasts Monday happened in Amarah, 300 kilometers southeast of Baghdad.  Officials say those bombings killed at least nine people.

Deadly bombings also hit Diwaniyah, Karbala and Mahmoudiya.

Iraq has seen a surge in violence in the past week that has left at least 180 people dead.

It began last Tuesday when government troops raided a Sunni protest site in the central town of Hawija.  Clashes there left 53 people dead and were followed by unrest in western and northern Iraq.

Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki has appealed for calm and dialogue, urging Iraqis in a televised address Thursday "not to remain silent" about what he called efforts by terrorists to drag the country back toward a sectarian civil war.

The violence is the deadliest in four months of protests by Iraq's minority Sunnis, who have been demanding Mr. Maliki's resignation.

They accuse his Shi'ite-led government of marginalizing the Sunni community and unfairly targeting its leaders for prosecution and arrest.

from VOA News
April 29, 2013

Read More

15 killed, 80 wounded in bombs in Iraq

A woman reacts near the site of a car bomb attack in Kirkuk, 250 km (155 miles) north of Baghdad, November 14, 2012. (Reuters)

BAGHDAD, Nov. 14 (Xinhua) -- A total of 15 people were killed and more than 80 others wounded Wednesday in a series of car bomb attacks across Iraq, on the eve of Muslim festival marking the Islamic lunar new year, the police said.

The deadliest attack occurred in the oil-rich province of Kirkuk in northern Iraq, when four car bombs killed a total of nine people and wounded some 32 others, a provincial police source told Xinhua on condition of anonymity.

One of the attacks reportedly went off in the central of Kirkuk, some 250 km north of Baghdad, and the second ripped through the city of Hawija, some 50 km southwest of Kirkuk, the source said.

A third car bomb detonated near the office of a Kurkish party in a village, just south of Kirkuk, while a fourth exploded at a parking lot in northwestern Kirkuk, the source added.

Another car bomb attacked at a crowded marketplace near the city of Hilla, some 100 km south of Baghdad, killing up to six people and wounding some 37 others, an interior ministry source anonymously told Xinhua.

Earlier, the source put the toll at four killed and nine injured by the blast.

In Baghdad, a car bomb detonated near the convoy of a senior police officer at al-Firdos Square in central city, wounding two of his bodyguards and five civilians, the ministry source said.

One more car bomb exploded at a marketplace in the town of Baladruz, east of the provincial capital city of Diyala, some 65 km northeast of Baghdad, wounding seven civilians, a provincial police source told Xinhua.

Violence and sporadic high-profile bomb attacks are still common in the Iraqi cities despite the dramatic decrease in violence since its peak in 2006 and 2007, when the country was engulfed in sectarian killings.

from XINHUA
2012-11-14 18:22:02
---

Early-morning bombings in Iraq kill at least 15, wound dozens - AL ABARIYA

Multiple Bombings Hit Iraq- VOA NEWS

Read More

Senior Qaida leader, 3 people killed in Iraq's violence

BAGHDAD, Jan. 21 (Xinhua) -- A senior leader of al-Qaida militant group was killed in police operation in northern Iraq on Saturday, while three people were killed in separate gunfire and bomb attacks in the day, the police said.

Majeed Hassan Ali, also known as Abu Ayman, a local leader of self-styled Islamic State of Iraq (ISI) in the city of Mosul, was killed in an operation by the Iraqi police on a suspected safe house of the militants in Rufaila area in the city, an Interior Ministry statement said.

Based on intelligence reports, the troops surrounded the safe house and clashed with the militants during the raid, which also resulted in arresting 19 al-Qaida fighters, two of them Palestinians, the statement said.

The troops also seized roadside bombs, sticky bombs and dozens of bags of explosives, as well as a cache of weapons and ammunition, the statement added.

Mosul, some 400 km north of Baghdad, has long been a stronghold for insurgent groups, including al-Qaida militants, despite several military offensives by U.S. and Iraqi forces during the past years.

In a separate incident, gunmen opened fire from assault rifles on the house of a police officer in the town of Hawija, some 240 km north of Baghdad, killing a passer-by and wounding the officer, a local police source told Xinhua on condition of anonymity.

In addition, a shepherd was killed in land mine explosion in Shwan area in northern the city of Kirkuk, some 250 km north of Baghdad, a local police source said.

Also in the day, a local Awakening Council group member was killed when a roadside bomb went off near a checkpoint manned by his group members in the town of Baiji, some 210 km north of Baghdad, the source added.

The Awakening Council group, or Sahwa in Arabic, consists of armed groups, including some powerful anti-U.S. Sunni insurgent groups which fought al-Qaida militants in the Sunni Arab areas after the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq.

Insurgents continue daily attacks including suicide bombings across Iraq since the U.S. troops pulled out of the country earlier last month.

Read More